Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation

The Thai economic recovery has continued to broaden and gain momentum, reflecting an increase in external demand amid global growth and a recovery from severe drought. The economy grew by 3.3 percent in 2017Q1, exceeding market expectations, as far...

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Main Authors: Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong, Reungsri, Thanapat, Habalian, Ricardo Alfredo, Clarke, Julian Latimer, Kuriakose, Smita
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Bangkok 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/437841530850260057/Thailand-economic-monitor-digital-transformation
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30248
id okr-10986-30248
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-302482021-09-21T12:09:13Z Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong Reungsri, Thanapat Habalian, Ricardo Alfredo Clarke, Julian Latimer Kuriakose, Smita ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FISCAL TRENDS DIGITAL ECONOMY TOURISM AGRIBUSINESS BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT DROUGHT The Thai economic recovery has continued to broaden and gain momentum, reflecting an increase in external demand amid global growth and a recovery from severe drought. The economy grew by 3.3 percent in 2017Q1, exceeding market expectations, as farm incomes and merchandise and tourism exports rose and fiscal stimulus policies continued. Merchandise exports recorded 6.6 percent growth, the highest growth observed in the last four years, due to both rising global commodity price and trading partner growth. Economic indicators suggest that the goods export upswing became increasingly broad-based and sustained in 2017Q2. The agricultural sector expanded by 7.7 percent due to rising agricultural prices and recovery from severe drought in 2015-2016. Domestic demand remained lackluster. Both private investment and private consumption growth remained sluggish. Private investment contracted by 1.1 percent in 2017Q1, reflecting spare production capacity in the manufacturing sector although certain subsectors showed lowered spare capacity due to increased external demand. Overall credit issuance remained subdued as lending standards tightened while loans to large corporates turned positive in 2017Q1 for the first time since 2015. Loans to SMEs and households continued their deceleration trends. Softening food prices resulted in a deceleration in headline inflation. The broadening export upturn and public infrastructure plans are contributing to an improvement in Thailand’s economic outlook. Economic growth is projected to reach 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018, as inflation is expected to return gradually to the low end of the inflation target range (1.0-4.0 percent). Continued agricultural recovery and strengthened household balance sheets will support private consumption growth while the export upswing will eventually spur manufacturing activity, capital goods import and private investment. However, a self-sustained recovery will hinge rising domestic demand supported by continued expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. Public infrastructure investments to connect lagging regions and upgrade rail through dual tracking can crowd in private investment, raise economy-wide productivity and improve investor sentiment. One specific focus area would be network slicing to ready broadband networks for the industries of the future in key requirements: latency, throughput, capacity and availability. Broadband infrastructure in Thailand will face exploding demands of data and heterogeneous requirements of different industries e.g. automotive, healthcare, logistics, retail or utilities. The network requirements for a factory with automated and flexible production systems would differ from those of a hospital doing robotic surgeries, or from the requirements of self-driving cars. To cater to these different requirements, networks will need to support different requirements for latency, throughput, capacity and availability. This would require a paradigm shift towards network slicing which can meet such needs. The European Commission is supporting a coalition of network operators1 and academic institutions to focus on network slicing for 5G, and has provided $8.9 million in funding for the initiative. 2018-08-17T18:59:18Z 2018-08-17T18:59:18Z 2017-08 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/437841530850260057/Thailand-economic-monitor-digital-transformation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30248 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Bangkok Economic & Sector Work :: Economic Updates and Modeling Economic & Sector Work East Asia and Pacific Thailand
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
FISCAL TRENDS
DIGITAL ECONOMY
TOURISM
AGRIBUSINESS
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
DROUGHT
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
FISCAL TRENDS
DIGITAL ECONOMY
TOURISM
AGRIBUSINESS
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
DROUGHT
Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong
Reungsri, Thanapat
Habalian, Ricardo Alfredo
Clarke, Julian Latimer
Kuriakose, Smita
Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
Thailand
description The Thai economic recovery has continued to broaden and gain momentum, reflecting an increase in external demand amid global growth and a recovery from severe drought. The economy grew by 3.3 percent in 2017Q1, exceeding market expectations, as farm incomes and merchandise and tourism exports rose and fiscal stimulus policies continued. Merchandise exports recorded 6.6 percent growth, the highest growth observed in the last four years, due to both rising global commodity price and trading partner growth. Economic indicators suggest that the goods export upswing became increasingly broad-based and sustained in 2017Q2. The agricultural sector expanded by 7.7 percent due to rising agricultural prices and recovery from severe drought in 2015-2016. Domestic demand remained lackluster. Both private investment and private consumption growth remained sluggish. Private investment contracted by 1.1 percent in 2017Q1, reflecting spare production capacity in the manufacturing sector although certain subsectors showed lowered spare capacity due to increased external demand. Overall credit issuance remained subdued as lending standards tightened while loans to large corporates turned positive in 2017Q1 for the first time since 2015. Loans to SMEs and households continued their deceleration trends. Softening food prices resulted in a deceleration in headline inflation. The broadening export upturn and public infrastructure plans are contributing to an improvement in Thailand’s economic outlook. Economic growth is projected to reach 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018, as inflation is expected to return gradually to the low end of the inflation target range (1.0-4.0 percent). Continued agricultural recovery and strengthened household balance sheets will support private consumption growth while the export upswing will eventually spur manufacturing activity, capital goods import and private investment. However, a self-sustained recovery will hinge rising domestic demand supported by continued expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. Public infrastructure investments to connect lagging regions and upgrade rail through dual tracking can crowd in private investment, raise economy-wide productivity and improve investor sentiment. One specific focus area would be network slicing to ready broadband networks for the industries of the future in key requirements: latency, throughput, capacity and availability. Broadband infrastructure in Thailand will face exploding demands of data and heterogeneous requirements of different industries e.g. automotive, healthcare, logistics, retail or utilities. The network requirements for a factory with automated and flexible production systems would differ from those of a hospital doing robotic surgeries, or from the requirements of self-driving cars. To cater to these different requirements, networks will need to support different requirements for latency, throughput, capacity and availability. This would require a paradigm shift towards network slicing which can meet such needs. The European Commission is supporting a coalition of network operators1 and academic institutions to focus on network slicing for 5G, and has provided $8.9 million in funding for the initiative.
format Report
author Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong
Reungsri, Thanapat
Habalian, Ricardo Alfredo
Clarke, Julian Latimer
Kuriakose, Smita
author_facet Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong
Reungsri, Thanapat
Habalian, Ricardo Alfredo
Clarke, Julian Latimer
Kuriakose, Smita
author_sort Ariyapruchya, Kiatipong
title Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
title_short Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
title_full Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
title_fullStr Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
title_full_unstemmed Thailand Economic Monitor, August 2017 : Digital Transformation
title_sort thailand economic monitor, august 2017 : digital transformation
publisher World Bank, Bangkok
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/437841530850260057/Thailand-economic-monitor-digital-transformation
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30248
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