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Annual Report 2002 : Mekong

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Thailand

Economic performance

In 2002, Thailand’s GDP growth was 5.2%, the highest rate since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The growth was driven by both domestic demand and volume of exports. The private consumption grew by 4.7% (especially consumption of durable goods), while private investment grew 13.3% (particularly construction). Although the growth of private investment was much higher, the share of private investment to GDP was much less than the share of private consumption to GDP. The increased contribution of private consumption on national output is the reflection of the Government’s policy to rely on the country’s own resources. The volume of exports also helped boost the 2002 growth. Inflation remained low at 0.7% in 2002, while the balance-of-payments surplus increased to over $4 billion. The international reserves reached $38.9 billion, and external debt declined to less than $60.0 billion.

Social indicators also improved. The unemployment rate fell to around 2.4%, and the proportion of the population living below $1 per day dropped from a peak of 5.2% in 2000 to 3.9% in 2002.

ADB operations

Operational strategy: Thailand continued to participate in ADB’s subregional cooperation activities, particularly the Greater Mekong Subregion; and cofinanced a GMS road project with the PRC and ADB.

Policy dialogue: Dialogue in 2002 focused on pension system design, fiscal management, and transparency. Capacity-building support continued for the newly created “accountability institutions,” such as the National Counter-Corruption Commission.

Loans and technical assistance: No loans were approved in 2002. Three technical assistance totaling $900,000 were approved (see tables 24 and 25 in the Statistical Annex).

Project implementation: Since joining ADB in 1966, Thailand has received 83 loans totaling $5,348.1 million, of which 8 were active at the end of 2002. Contract awards totaled about $57.0 million, bringing the cumulative figure to $4,125.6 million. The contract awards ratio for 2002 was 42.4%—higher than ADB’s average of 22.6%. Disbursements in 2002 totaled $75.8 million, bringing cumulative disbursements to $4,096.4 million. The disbursement ratio was 35.6%—higher than the ADB-wide average of 22.2% (see tables 14–23 in the Statistical Annex).

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