The World Bank has revised its expectations for Thailand’s economic growth in 2025 to 1.8%. The new assessment from the world’s lender reflects a sharp drop from 2.9% expansion expected in its earlier projection in January 2025.
Growth is expected to slow further in 2026 to a modest 1.7%, a full percentage point from earlier projection. Growth is forecast to bounce back to 2.3% in 2027.
This adjustment reflects significant challenges posed by escalating tariffs and pervasive uncertainty impacting virtually all countries. The World Bank also cut global growth by 0.4 percentage points to a modest 2.3%.
The updated figures are part of the World Bank’s semi-annual Global Economic Prospects report, which now foresees diminished growth for nearly 70% of the world’s economies compared to six months ago. This downturn encompasses regions such as the U.S., China, Europe, and six emerging market sectors.
The shift comes in the wake of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s tenure, which has brought tumult to global trade via a sequence of tariffs. These actions have pushed the effective U.S. tariff rate from below 3% to the mid-teens, the highest level in nearly a hundred years, prompting retaliatory measures from China and other nations.
The World Bank predicted that this year’s global economic growth will be the weakest, outside of a recession, since 2008. By 2027, worldwide GDP growth is projected to average a mere 2.5%, marking the slowest decade-long pace since the 1960s.
