Almost half of Thai households had debts of 160,000 baht on average in the first half of this year, according to official statistics.
The National Statistical Office unveiled the results of its survey on the economy conducted on 26,000 households on Friday.
It found 49.2% of all households had debts averaging 163,276 baht during the period.
Of the debts, 74.9% were for household use - consumption (40.4%), home and land purchases (33.3%) and education (1.2%).
The remaining 25.1% of the debts were for investment and other purposes - farming (14%) and businesses (10.4%) and others (0.7%).
The majority, 91.4%, of the indebted households borrowed from financial institutions. However, the average debt of this group was 49 times that owed to loan sharks (160,012 baht compared to 3,264 baht), the report said.
The data showed Thai households had an average income of 27,545 baht a month, 72.6% of which came from work. The rest came from assets or investments such as interest.
Of their average monthly expenses of 21,818 baht, 33.6% was for food and beverages while 12.6% was non-consumption expenses such as taxes, gifts, insurance premiums and lottery.
Compared to 2006, the average income of Thai households increased by 54.86% while their average expenses rose 52.46%.