Thailand has approved a $12.2 billion emergency borrowing package to cushion the economic impacts of the war, marking one of the country’s largest borrowing plans in decades, AFP reports.

The cabinet has said the funding would be used to boost domestic spending and ease economic hardships as inflation rises and growth slows, with the finance ministry last week cutting its GDP growth forecast to 1.6 per cent, from 2.4pc last year.

It will also be used to support alternative energy, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said at a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called the loan “a tool to move the country forward and prevent economic weakening”.

“We will get through this crisis together,” he told reporters.