Thailand

With a robust export economy dominated by the manufacturing industry, Thailand has long benefitted from foreign investment in key sectors, such as automotive and electronics, while its agriculture and agro-food base has pushed it to the forefront in global rubber, rice and seafood production. Trade and investment have been under pressure in...

Recent decades have seen a downward convergence in corporate tax regimes as advanced, emerging and developing economies moved to grab a bigger slice of the global investment pie. Headline corporate tax rates have fallen by 20 percentage points since the early 1980s. Alongside lower average rates, special tax incentives aimed at capturing investment...

While the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was formally established in 2015, financial cooperation across the region remains somewhat fragmented. Goods and services move freely between countries, but banks, stock exchanges and securities companies tend to be limited to their home markets.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promises to radically transform a vast swathe of the world’s trade and transport infrastructure, which will have a marked impact on how Asia does business with the world and vice versa.

As the first emerging economy expected to become an “aged society”, with more than 14% of the population projected to be over 65 years old in 2022, Thailand is confronting a demographic challenge to its economic development. Faced with rising public health costs and a shrinking workforce, as well as a limited pool of skilled labour, the government...

Macroeconomic recovery in Thailand gained momentum in 2017, with GDP growth hitting a five-year high on the back of positive performance in exports, tourism and financial services, as well as a moderate uptick in private consumption. Although non-performing loans (NPLs) remain a concern for the banking sector, lending growth accelerated in 2017....