By Devjyot Ghoshal, Juarawee Kittisilpa and Orathai&nbsp;Sriring
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Kavita Wongyakasem runs a small business in Bangkok, owns a two-storey house on the outskirts of the&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;capital, drives a pick-up truck, and sends her two daughters to good schools.
But every day is a desperate struggle to find the money to keep her&nbsp;household&nbsp;afloat, said the 48-year-old, whose business provides services for a big energy company.
"I think about it every minute," said Kavita, breaking into tears as she spoke.
The sole breadwinner of a family of five is about 8 million baht ($236,000) in&nbsp;debt&nbsp;and has no cash savings.
"Some days I just can't face the morning. I don't want to wake up to the reality that we don't have any money."
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Thailand has among the highest&nbsp;household&nbsp;debt&nbsp;to gross domestic product (GDP) ratios in Asia - behind only South Korea and Hong Kong, according to a Bank for International Settlements ranking - and&nbsp;millions&nbsp;of people, one in every three&nbsp;Thais, are trapped in&nbsp;debt.
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Graphic:&nbsp;Thailand's&nbsp;household&nbsp;debt&nbsp;concern - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/THAILAND-ELECTION/DEBT/egpbybbrxvq/chart.png
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The problem has become a key issue in a May 14 general&nbsp;election&nbsp;and all major parties have promised wage increases or&nbsp;debt&nbsp;moratoriums, along with guarantee-free loans and handouts.
Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Move Forward party, which has proposed annual minimum wage revisions, said he would look to fix&nbsp;Thailand's long-standing inequality problem.
"If you do the maths, it's about 1% at the top and the 99% at the bottom," said Pita, who has seen a late surge in popularity.
"Once you're in&nbsp;debt, it's very hard for you to move up the ladder."
Thailand's central bank is worried. In February, it said that&nbsp;household&nbsp;debt&nbsp;levels should be brought down from 86.9% of GDP at the end of 2022 to below 80% to help reduce financial risks.
Political parties' extravagant&nbsp;election&nbsp;promises could increase the macro-economic risks posed by&nbsp;debt, analysts say.
Excluding overlapping policies, poll promises by nine major parties analysed in February could amount to 3.14 trillion baht ($92.52 billion), only slightly less than the annual budget of 3.18 trillion baht, the&nbsp;Thailand Development Research Institute think-tank estimated.
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Graphic: Wages and inflation under previous&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;PMs - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/THAILAND-ELECTION/DEBT/egpbybenxvq/Wages-and-inflation-under-previous-Thai-PMs.jpg
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The&nbsp;election&nbsp;is building up to be another battle between parties aligned with the military-backed establishment and the populist opposition. Whoever wins will have to contend with the gnawing&nbsp;debt&nbsp;problem.
"High&nbsp;household&nbsp;debt&nbsp;rate means that it won't be easy to lay out future policies to stimulate consumption because people&nbsp;are busy paying&nbsp;debts and asking the bank for loans," said Thanavath Phonvichai, president of University of the&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).
'NO WARNING'
The&nbsp;debt&nbsp;burden starts early for many&nbsp;Thais and can last a lifetime.
Some 58% of people aged 25 to 29 are in&nbsp;debt, and a quarter of people over 60 have outstanding loans, averaging more than 400,000 baht ($12,000), central bank data shows.
In all, about 30% of those with credit cards or personal loans have a combined&nbsp;debt&nbsp;of 10-25 times their income, double that of international standards, according to the bank.
Although a sticky issue for years, the problem has become worse since the COVID-19 pandemic that nearly doubled the number of bad&nbsp;debt&nbsp;accounts to 10 million, according to the central bank.
The pandemic didn't ravage&nbsp;Thailand's 71 million people as much as it did those in some other countries but it hammered the heavily tourism-dependent economy and hit incomes.
"There was no warning," said Achin Chunglog, president of a nationwide group of volunteers that helps people struggling with&nbsp;debt.
"It's like we were walking and then suddenly a wind came in and swept us off a cliff."
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Graphic: Examples of major parties' policies related with&nbsp;household&nbsp;debt&nbsp;- https://www.reuters.com/graphics/THAILAND-ELECTION/DEBT/xmpjkqqzgvr/chart.png
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An April survey of 1,300 respondents with a monthly salary of up to 15,000 baht ($442) by the UTCC&nbsp;found that their&nbsp;debt&nbsp;levels were the highest since 2010.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the rural hinterland, 90% of farm&nbsp;households have outstanding loans, according to a March study that described a "vicious cycle of&nbsp;debt".
Kavita said her income dropped during the pandemic but expenses rose as she scrambled to keep her staff of about 20 safe from the virus.
To pay salaries and keep her home running, she said she was forced to borrow from outside the banking system.
One recent evening, watching politicians on a televised debate, Kavita said the handouts offered by political parties sounded good but would do little to help those heavily in&nbsp;debt.
"I can't die," Kavita said, referring to a law that the assets of a deceased person go to creditors to pay off&nbsp;debts.
"It's an endless struggle."
($1 = 33.94 baht)
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(Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Analysis-Thai household debt in election focus as millions in 'endless struggle'