Thailand has transitioned from a lowincome to an upper-middle-income country in less than a generation. Over the past 20 years, the country has maintained high foreign reserves, low inflation, a sound banking system and a
stable exchange rate. Combined with an openness to trade, financial flows, labour migration and investments in both human and physical capital, these advances have facilitated high levels of growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and significant reductions in poverty. Thailand’s Human Development Index is 0.777, though after adjustment for inequality, it falls to 0.646, a 16.9 per cent loss. Its Gender Development Index is 1.008. Thailand’s economic growth has slowed during the past five years, with a GDP growth rate of 2.3 per cent to 4.2 per cent. In 2015, the government set a goal, based on the Thailand 4.0 policy initiative,2 to achieve high-income status by 2032.