Thailand’s NESDC warns first-time workers face escalating bad debt as social media trends and online reviews override financial self-restraint.
Thailand’s state planning agency has expressed grave concern over the country’s youngest demographic, warning that “Gen Z” consumers under the age of 25 are accumulating personal debt and slipping into default at an unprecedented rate.
According to the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), the surge is being fundamentally driven by impulsive shopping habits. Young workers are increasingly purchasing goods and services promoted by social media influencers without assessing their own repayment capacity.
Unveiling the Q1/2026 Thai Social Trends report, NESDC secretary-general Danucha Pichayanan noted that while broader household debt expanded only marginally in the final quarter of last year, it marks the second consecutive quarterly rise.
The macro data masks a more volatile micro trend: a severe deterioration in credit quality among young, first-time earners entering the workforce.
A Social Media Spending Spree
The digital landscape has fundamentally altered consumer behaviour in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.
Rather than acting purely as entertainment hubs, platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook have morphed into primary commerce engines where consumer trust is manufactured.
Data from the Visa Gen Z Decoded 2025 study highlighted that 58 per cent of Thai Gen Z consumers implicitly trust recommendations from the digital creators they follow, whilst half view brands featured on these platforms favourably.