Thailand: Selected Issues

International Monetary Fund

No 2026/042, IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This Selected Issues paper reviews Thailand’s progress in structural transformation and its recent slowdown. It examines the empirical drivers of structural transformation and quantifies their contributions, with the objective of informing policies to reinvigorate the process. The analysis highlights several policy priorities to promote structural transformation. Accelerating trade liberalization, including deeper integration into global and regional markets, can facilitate the reallocation of labor toward more productive sectors. Investing in education, particularly at the primary and secondary levels, is essential for building a workforce capable of transitioning to higher-productivity employment. Enhancing financial inclusion and expanding access to credit for productive investments can broaden opportunities to improve labor allocation efficiency. Lessons from regional peers offer valuable insights for effective policy design and implementation. Thailand’s structural transformation has slowed but remains incomplete. With targeted and well-coordinated policies that promote labor movement toward its most productive uses, Thailand can unlock substantial productivity gains—which would provide a much-needed boost to its economic growth.

Keywords: e-money payment; payment digitalization; payment revolution; employment share; staff team; QR payment standard; Digital financial services; Structural transformation; Productivity; Currencies; Global; Asia and Pacific; East Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2026-02-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=573949 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfscr:2026/042

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().