{
  "id": "th-deposit-rate-savings-big4",
  "title": "Thai big-four bank passbook savings rate",
  "metric": "Time-weighted annual mean savings-deposit rate, four largest Thai commercial banks",
  "unit": "% per year",
  "kind": "rate",
  "volatility": "static",
  "direction_note": "lower = the 800,000 THB the Thai retirement extension requires earns less, and loses more of it to Thai inflation",
  "publisher": "No Margin Left",
  "source": {
    "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rates of Commercial Banks (Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx) — 46,326 data rows, 32 named commercial banks and foreign branches, 1,564 business days, 4 January 2017 to 9 June 2023. Downloaded and parsed in full; the annual figures below are the author's time-weighted aggregation over that panel, not a Bank of Thailand publication.\n",
    "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/en/statistics/interest-rate.html"
  },
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "No Margin Left, \"Thai big-four bank passbook savings rate\" (Time-weighted annual mean savings-deposit rate, four largest Thai commercial banks). CC BY 4.0. https://nomarginleft.com/data/th-deposit-rate-savings-big4.json",
  "canonical": "https://nomarginleft.com/data/th-deposit-rate-savings-big4.json",
  "csv": "https://nomarginleft.com/data/th-deposit-rate-savings-big4.csv",
  "retrieved": "2026-08-16",
  "stale": false,
  "observations": [
    {
      "date": "2017",
      "value": 0.5,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "Flat across the whole year. On 4 January 2017, the panel's first date, Bangkok Bank posted 0.5000–0.6250, Krung Thai 0.50, Kasikornbank 0.50 and Siam Commercial Bank 0.50.\n",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.5,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2017 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 1.289,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ],
      "rationale": "The two readings are not the same metric and the gap between them is the finding, not an error. The Bank of Thailand panel gives a rate per bank, per account type, per business day, and the value resolved here is the savings column at the four banks a retirement deposit is actually held with. The World Bank publishes one annual deposit rate per country; across 2017–2022 it tracks the 12-month FIXED deposit to within 0.051 points on average and misses the savings rate by 0.529. It loses on this ledger because it describes a different account.\n"
    },
    {
      "date": "2018",
      "value": 0.5,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.5,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2018 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 1.288,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2019",
      "value": 0.5,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "third and last year of the flat stretch — the four banks' savings rate did not move between January 2017 and 2020.",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.5,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2019 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 1.417,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2020",
      "value": 0.343,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "The year contains mid-year cuts, which is exactly why the spot rate at any single date misstates it. The only year in the panel's span where this account beat Thai inflation, and it was the deflator that did it: Thai prices fell 0.846 per cent.\n",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.343,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2020 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 0.622,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2021",
      "value": 0.25,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "the floor. By 4 January 2021 all four banks were posting 0.25.",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.25,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2021 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 0.406,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2022",
      "value": 0.263,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "Contains one mid-year move (Bangkok Bank to 0.45 in September 2022). Thai inflation came in at 6.076 per cent against this 0.263, the widest real gap in the panel.\n",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.263,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, all 2022 panel dates",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 0.51,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ],
      "rationale": "2022 is where the divergence between the two readings is easiest to check: the World Bank's 0.510 and this panel's 12-month fixed-deposit mean of 0.511 agree to a thousandth of a point, while the savings mean resolved here is 0.263. Whatever the headline series is measuring, in this year it is demonstrably the term deposit.\n"
    },
    {
      "date": "2023",
      "value": 0.317,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-08-16",
      "note": "PARTIAL YEAR — 1 January to 9 June 2023, the panel's last date, and not comparable with the full years above without prorating. On 9 June 2023 the four had separated: Bangkok Bank 0.60, Krung Thai 0.30, Kasikornbank 0.30, Siam Commercial Bank 0.30. Across the twenty banks still quoting that day the published band ran 0.05 to 2.00 per cent. Then the file stops, and no granular Thai deposit-rate series has replaced it.\n",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 0.317,
          "source": {
            "label": "Bank of Thailand, Deposit Rate_ENG.xlsx — four-bank time-weighted mean, 2023 panel dates to 9 June",
            "url": "https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/statistics/Deposit%20Rate_ENG.xlsx"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "full download and parse of the historical panel, 2026-08-14"
        },
        {
          "value": 1.374,
          "source": {
            "label": "World Bank World Development Indicators FR.INR.DPST, deposit interest rate, Thailand",
            "url": "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/THA;PHL/indicator/FR.INR.DPST?format=json&date=2005:2027"
          },
          "retrieved_via": "World Bank API, 2026-07-13 vintage"
        }
      ],
      "rationale": "The 2023 panel value covers 160 of 365 days and is resolved as the time-weighted mean over those dates, unprorated, because prorating it would make it a different quantity from the six complete years above. The World Bank reading for 2023 is a full-year figure on a different account and is recorded, not used. Nothing after 9 June 2023 is interpolated: between that date and Bangkok Bank's rate card of 18 June 2026 there is no granular series at all.\n"
    }
  ],
  "corrections": []
}