Economy of Thailand

Economy of Thailand
	Bangkok, the commercial hub of Thailand
Currency	Thai baht (THB, ฿)
Fiscal year	1 October – 30 September
Trade organisations	WTO, APEC, IOR-ARC, ASEAN, RCEP
Country group	Developing/Emerging; Upper-middle income economy; Newly industrialized country;
Statistics
Population	69,950,844 (2021)
GDP	$546.34 billion (nominal; 2025 est.); $1.857 trillion (PPP; 2025 est.);
GDP rank	26th (nominal; 2024); 23rd (PPP; 2024);
GDP growth	1.5% (2021); 2.8% (2022); 1.9% (2023);
GDP per capita	$7,770 (nominal; 2025 est.); $26,320 (PPP; 2025 est.);
GDP per capita rank	87th (nominal; 2025); 72th (PPP; 2025);
GDP by sector	Agriculture: 8.4%; Industry: 39.2%; Services: 52.4%; (2012);
Inflation (CPI)	5.02% (Jan 2023)
Population below poverty line	9.9% (2018); 8.6% on less than $5.50/day (2018);
Gini coefficient	34.9 medium (2019, World Bank)
Human Development Index	0.803 very high (2022) (66th); 0.681 medium IHDI (61st) (2022);
Labour force	38,917,441 (2019); 67.3% employment rate (2018);
Unemployment	1.1% (2020 est.)
Average gross salary	฿15,352 / US$437 monthly
Average net salary	฿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	$300.52 billion (2024)
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	ASEAN 23.5%; United States 17.2%; China 15.9% Hong Kong 3.9%; ; Japan 8.7%; European Union 7.7%; (2023);
Imports	$306.80 billion (2024)
Import goods	Capital and intermediate goods, raw materials, consumer goods, fuels
Main import partners	China 25.3%; ASEAN 16.9%; Japan 10.8%; European Union 6.8%; United States 6.7%; (2023);
FDI stock	$205.5 billion (2017 est.)
Gross external debt	$163.40 billion (Q1 2019)
Public finances
Government debt	63.32% of GDP (FY2024)
Foreign reserves	$262.54 billion (December 2024)
Revenues	฿2.792 trillion (FY2024)
Expenses	฿3.273 trillion (FY2024)
Economic aid	None
Credit rating	Standard & Poor's:; A- (Domestic); BBB+ (Foreign); A (T&C Assessment); Outlook: Stable; Moody's:; Baa1; Outlook: Stable; Fitch:; A- (Local Currency IDR); BBB+ (Foreign Currency IDR); A- (Country Ceiling); Outlook: Stable; Japan Credit Rating Agency:; A (Local Currency IDR); A- (Foreign Currency IDR); A+ (Country Ceiling); Outlook: Stable;
	All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

The economy of Thailand is dependent on exports, which accounted for about 58 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021. 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. As of 2018, Thailand has an average inflation of 1.06% and an account surplus of 7.5% of the country's GDP. Its currency, the baht, is ranked as the tenth most frequently used world payment currency in 2017.

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. Telecommunications and trade in services are emerging as centers of industrial expansion and economic competitiveness.

Thailand is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. Its per capita GDP 255,362 baht (US$7,336) in 2023 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, 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. Thailand ranks second in Southeast Asia in external trade volume, after Singapore.

The nation is recognized by the World Bank as "one of the great development success stories" in social and development indicators. Despite a per capita gross national income (GNI) of US$7,090 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.

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).