Meisha Searcy and Elena Saenz

Category: Globalization

Basic Overview:
-Thailand has a well-developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise economy, and pro-investment policies; Thailand appears to have fully recovered from the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis.
-Thai economy grew 6.9% in 2003 and 6.1% in 2004 despite a slow global economy.
-Exports have performed at record levels, rising nearly 17% in 2006 and 12% in 2007. Export-oriented manufacturing - in particular automobile production - and farm output are driving these gains.

GDP Growth Rate: 4.3% (2007 est.)

Labor Force (Composition): agriculture: 49%, industry: 14%, services: 37% (2000 est.)

Inflation Rate: 2% (2007 est.)
Growing impoverishment, increasing inequality in income distribution, casualization of labor, an increase in child labor and child trafficking, and widespread ecological destruction affected the health and livelihood of the rural poor in Thailand. Poverty, suicide and crime rates increased because of the economic crisis. In Thailand, with the total population of 63 million, the number of poor people jumped from 7 million in 1997 to an estimated 12 million today. The suicide rate increased from 10 to15 people per 100,000 and the number of prisoners rose from 66,000 in 1997 to 170,000 in 1998. The gap between rich and poor continued to grow. The rich minority increased their share of the national income earned from 20.5 % to 22.5 % in Thailand, from 22 % to 24.5 % in Korea, and from 39.3 % to 42.9 % in the Philippines.