spillovers to the other parts of the economy, thereby securing a more broad - based recovery over time. however, export - oriented firms which currently spearhead the ongoing economic recovery are capital - intensive. they utilize more machinery rather than relying on labor. thus, positive spillovers to employment are less prevailing. this partly explains why the manufacturing employment growth has been rather moderate despite strong export growth and pickup in the manufacturing production index. furthermore, having a high level of household debt, especially during the debt deleveraging period, dampens this multiplier mechanism. this is because households have to use additional income to service their debt obligations rather than spending on goods and services. while there are signs of household debt being deleveraged, as reflected by a continuous decline in the ratio of household debt to gdp which fell from 79. 0 percent in 2016 to 77. 5 percent by the end of last year, debt burden remains high especially for lower - income households. ladies and gentlemen, i have been talking about factors behind the uneven economic performance of the last few years. going forward, the economic recovery is expected to be more broad - based and i want to highlight a few of these positive developments. first, export growth, our main growth driver, is becoming more broad - based as growth has now extended beyond larger players. in fact, export growth rate of smes 3 / 10 has become more or less on par with that of larger firms. domestic demand is also gaining traction with a steady growth in private consumption, and a pickup in private investment since the third quarter of last year especially from imports of capital goods. second, the government has directly stepped up various stimulus measures to support the rural economy. last year, the government introduced the supplementary budget with a particular focus on local infrastructure development, and the welfare card scheme which aimed to support daily expenditures among poorer households. this year, the new supplementary budget is allocated to vocational training as part of the second phase of the welfare card scheme, development of local community enterprises, as well as water resource development to improve productivity within the agricultural sector. this, together with the increase in the minimum wage in april, will support the rural economy and the well - being of the lower - income group. third, the multiplier effects should improve on the back of increasing public and private investment. while some of the government infrastructure projects were deferred from last year partly due to the new government procurement system. this year progress should have a better outlook since many projects

infrastructure to connect with the modern world. ladies and gentleman, let me now turn to bank of thailand ’ s initiatives to help uplift thailand ’ s longterm competitiveness. thailand is transitioning to a new era of digital payment system and financial technology in which the bank of thailand is fully committed to foster. first and foremost, electronic payment infrastructures must be put in place to realize the full potential of digital economy. under the national e - payment masterplan, last year the bank of thailand together with the ministry of finance and 6 / 10 the thai bankers ’ association launched our new faster payment system – promptpay – which propelled the wider adoption of e - payment in thailand. promptpay is an instant payment platform that links bank accounts to various forms of identification including national id numbers and mobile phone numbers. with promptpay, funds can be transferred to a recipient ’ s preferred bank account in real time and at virtually no cost. this new technology has significantly boosted the usage of mobile banking, and has potential to lead to significant growth in e - commerce in thailand as well as to radically change the way government welfare payments are distributed. in just over a year since the launch of promptpay, there are over 40 million ids registered on the platform and more than 2. 7 million transactions a day. the increasing usage of promptpay also served as a catalyst that eventually led to the announcements of most commercial banks two months ago, to eliminate transfer fees for all transfers through mobile and online banking. all in all, promptpay provides a crucial payment infrastructure which opens the door to many other digital payment services. another initiative of the bank of thailand to promote digital payment services is the thai standard qr code for payment. the standardized qr code makes epayment seamless across platforms regardless of which bank or non - bank service provider merchants and consumers are using. in just eight months since its implementations, more than two million merchants in thailand now accept epayment through qr code, and this figure will continue to grow. having a common standard for qr code will indeed generate benefits beyond payment convenience. the common standard will help ensure that no incumbent service providers has an advantage of locking merchants with their qr formats, and allow new and innovative payment service providers to easily enter the market. the standard will also help facilitate the move towards information - based lending for smes as their payment transaction information can be consolidated. given that the payment standard was developed together with five