Economy of Thailand

Economy of Thailand
Bangkok, the commercial hub of Thailand
CurrencyThai baht (THB, ฿)
1 October – 30 September
Trade organisations
WTO, APEC, IOR-ARC, ASEAN, RCEP
Country group
Statistics
PopulationIncrease 69,950,844 (2021)[3]
GDP
GDP rank
GDP growth
  • Increase 1.5% (2021)[5]
  • Increase 2.8% (2022)[5]
  • Increase 1.9% (2023)[5]
GDP per capita
  • Increase $7,812 (nominal; 2024 est.)[4]
  • Increase $23,401 (PPP; 2024 est.)[4]
GDP per capita rank
GDP by sector
  • Agriculture: 8.4%
  • Industry: 39.2%
  • Services: 52.4%
  • (2012)[6]
5.02% (Jan 2023)
Population below poverty line
  • Negative increase 9.9% (2018)[7]
  • Negative increase 8.6% on less than $5.50/day (2018)[8]
Positive decrease 34.9 medium (2019, World Bank)[9]
Labour force
  • Increase 38,917,441 (2019)[11]
  • Increase 67.3% employment rate (2018)[12]
UnemploymentSteady 1.1% (2020 est.)[13]
Average gross salary
฿15,352 / US$437 monthly
฿14,505 / US$413 monthly
Main industries
Automobiles and automotive parts (11%), financial services (9%), electric appliances and components (8%), tourism (6%), cement, auto manufacturing, heavy and light industries, appliances, computers and parts, furniture, plastics, textiles and garments, agricultural processing, beverages, tobacco
External
Exports$287.42 billion (2023)[14]
Export goods
machinery (23%), electronics (19%), foods and wood (14%), chemicals and plastics (14%), automobiles and automotive parts (12%), stone and glass (7%), textiles and furniture (4%)
Main export partners
Imports$303.19 billion (2022)[14]
Import goods
Capital and intermediate goods, raw materials, consumer goods, fuels
Main import partners
FDI stock
$205.5 billion (2017 est.)[15]
$163.40 billion (Q1 2019)[16]
Public finances
61.85% of GDP (2023)[17]
Revenues฿2.664 trillion (FY2023)[18]
Expenses฿2.610 trillion (FY2023)[19]
Economic aidNone
$250.98 billion (net amount, 12/04/2024)[24]
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.


The economy of Thailand is dependent on exports, which accounted in 2021 for about 58 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).[25] Thailand itself is a newly industrialized country, with a GDP of 17.922 trillion baht (US$514.8 billion) in 2023, the 9th largest economy in Asia.[26] As of 2018, Thailand has an average inflation of 1.06%[27] and an account surplus of 7.5% of the country's GDP.[28] Its currency, the baht, is ranked as the tenth most frequently used world payment currency in 2017.[29]

The industrial and service sectors are the main sectors in the Thai gross domestic product, with the former accounting for 39.2 percent of GDP. Thailand's agricultural sector produces 8.4 percent of GDP—lower than the trade and logistics and communication sectors, which account for 13.4 percent and 9.8 percent of GDP respectively. The construction and mining sector adds 4.3 percent to the country's gross domestic product. Other service sectors (including the financial, education, and hotel and restaurant sectors) account for 24.9 percent of the country's GDP.[6] Telecommunications and trade in services are emerging as centers of industrial expansion and economic competitiveness.[30]

Thailand is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. Its per capita GDP 255,362 baht (US$7,336) in 2023[26] ranks fourth in Southeast Asian per capita GDP, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia. In July 2018, Thailand held US$237.5 billion in international reserves,[31] the second-largest in Southeast Asia (after Singapore). Its surplus in the current account balance ranks tenth of the world, made US$37.898 billion to the country in 2018.[32] Thailand ranks second in Southeast Asia in external trade volume, after Singapore.[33]

The nation is recognized by the World Bank as "one of the great development success stories" in social and development indicators.[34] Despite a per capita gross national income (GNI) of US$7,090[35] and ranking 66th in the Human Development Index (HDI), the percentage of people below the national poverty line decreased from 65.26 percent in 1988 to 8.61 percent in 2016, according to the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council's (NESDC) new poverty baseline.[36]

Thailand is one of the countries with the lowest unemployment rates in the world, reported as one percent for the first quarter of 2014. This is due to a large proportion of the population working in subsistence agriculture or on other vulnerable employment (own-account work and unpaid family work).[37]

  1. ^ "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2019". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  2. ^ "World Bank Country and Lending Groups". datahelpdesk.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Population, total". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2023". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2022 OCT Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. p. 43. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Thailand at a glance". Bank of Thailand. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  7. ^ "Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population) - Thailand". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population) – Thailand". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  9. ^ "GINI index (World Bank estimate)". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Human Development Report 2023/2024" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Labor force, total - Thailand". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Employment to population ratio, 15+, total (%) (national estimate) - Thailand". data.worldbank.org. World Bank. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  13. ^ "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2020". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  14. ^ a b c d "การค้าระหว่างประเทศของไทย กับ โลก". Ministry of Commerce. 2023. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  15. ^ "COUNTRY COMPARISON :: STOCK OF DIRECT FOREIGN INVESTMENT – AT HOME". The World Factbook. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  16. ^ "External debt (US$)". Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  17. ^ "Public debt outstanding". Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  18. ^ Government’s Net Revenue Collection: Fiscal Year 2023 (October 2022 - September 2023) Royal Thai Government.
  19. ^ Disbursement summary as of 4th quarter of fiscal year 2023 Parliamentary Budget Office.
  20. ^ "Sovereigns rating list". Standard & Poor's. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
  21. ^ a b Rogers, Simon; Sedghi, Ami (15 April 2011). "How Fitch, Moody's and S&P rate each country's credit rating". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  22. ^ "Fitch Upgrades Thailand to 'BBB+'; Outlook Stable". FitchRatings. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  23. ^ https://www.jcr.co.jp/download/f6626688e6d6bf4e6e654d6de4254ff53f49de2596e638d6e6/17i0003_f.pdf Archived 29 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  24. ^ "International Reserves". Bank of Thailand. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  25. ^ "Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) - Thailand | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  26. ^ a b International Monetary Fund. "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024". International Monetary Fund.
  27. ^ "Change in Price Level" (PDF). Bank of Thailand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  28. ^ "Thai Economic Performance in Q4 and 2012 and Outlook for 2013" (PDF). Office of the Economic and Social Development Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  29. ^ RMB role and share of international payments is declining CTMfile. 5 April 2017
  30. ^ Thailand's Annual Infrastructure Report 2008 (PDF). Washington DC: World Bank. 1 January 2008. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  31. ^ "International Reserves (Weekly)". Bank of Thailand. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  32. ^ "COUNTRY COMPARISON : CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE". The World Factbook. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  33. ^ "World Trade Developments" (PDF). World Trade Organization. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  34. ^ "Thailand". World Bank. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  35. ^ "GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$)". Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  36. ^ "ตารางที่ 1.2 สัดส่วนคนจน เมื่อวัดด้านรายจ่ายเพื่อการอุปโภคบริโภค จำแนกตามภาคและพื้นที่ ปี พ.ศ. 2531–2559". Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  37. ^ [1] Archived 12 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine TNSO The National Statistical Office of Thailand. "Over half of all Thailand's workers are in vulnerable employment (defined as the sum of own-account work and unpaid family work) and more than 60 percent are informally employed, with no access to any social security mechanisms". Thailand. A labour market profile, International Labour Organization, 2013.