IMF predicts Thai economic growth of 3.7% in 2023
The International Monetary Fund has predicted that Thailand’s economy will grow by 3.7% in terms of real GDP in contrast with the global economic slowdown.
In its latest world economic growth projections released last month, the IMF said Thailand was one of two nations in Asia that can be expected to grow in real GDP terms both this year and next. The other country is China.
According to IMF, Thailand’s projected real GDP growth for 2022 is 2.8% and 3.7% for 2023.
The IMF report said the cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions in most regions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lingering Covid-19 pandemic all weigh heavily on the outlook. As a result, it has forecast a global slowdown from 6% in 2021 to 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023.
The report noted that Thailand’s unemployment rate for this year and next is at merely 1%.
Kristalina Georgieva, IMF’s managing director, said at the Apec Summit in Bangkok on Saturday that the economies of most Apec members would slow down and a third of the world will enter an economic recession.
She said the US, China and European Union economies will slow down at the same time, which will affect the export markets of new-world nations because the three are the main driving forces for global economies.
