TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – From Phnom Penh to Bangkok, a growing share of mainland Southeast Asia‘s economic story is no longer about exports, investment or factory growth, but about households borrowing simply to get by.
What was once sold as financial inclusion is curdling into financial stress, analysts say, as years of easy credit, weak wage growth, and inadequate public services have left millions of households dangerously exposed. There are fears a household debt problem could become a broader financial one.
Cambodia is at the center of the crisis. The country’s credit boom lifted the private debt-to-GDP ratio from 24.2% in 2010 to 134.5% in 2023, one of the region’s sharpest…