The Thai economy has been recoveringslowly from the global financial crisis compared tocountries like Malaysia and China. Growth in 2013 isprojected to be 3 percent with slower than expectedperformance in all components of gross domestic product(GDP) - consumption, investment, next exports, andgovernment spending. Growth is projected to be 4.0 percentin 2014 as the global economy recovers. Exports shouldaccelerate and may well be helped by the tapering of theUnited States (U.S.) quantitative easing (QE) as the bahtdepreciates. Taking a longer perspective, there remainsvisible inequality in public service delivery and humanachievement outcomes. Addressing the regional disparities isimportant for Thailand not only from a social equityperspective, but also from a competitiveness and economicgrowth perspective. As the population ages, Thailand isseeking to move to a high income economy. Such a transitionwill require a much broader base of healthy and high skilledcitizens. Suggested policy responses include: (a)rebalancing public spending regionally, (b) improving thefunctioning of local administration by devolving moreresponsibility to local levels, and (c) supporting greateraccountability at the local level. This report is dividedinto two parts: part one presents macroeconomic developmentsin 2013 and 2014; and part two deals with equitable publicservice provision in Thailand.
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