The World Bank has revised Thailand’s growth outlook for 2025 to 2% as major concerns over the trade tariffs earlier this year have begun to subside. However, new challenges are within sight as political uncertainties could slow down growth in the country.
Since the beginning of this year, the global economy, including the economies of Southeast Asian countries, has faced various challenges. The biggest challenge, however, comes from the U.S. raising customs tariffs.
Most recently, on October 7, Mr. Aaditya Mattoo, Chief Economist for East Asia and Pacific at the World Bank, stated at a press briefing regarding the “East Asia and Pacific Economic Update” report for October 2025 that over the past three decades, the economies of East Asia and the Pacific have experienced rapid growth. However, this growth is now showing a downward trend. For this year, growth is projected at 4.8%, and only 4.3% next year, dropping from 5.0% last year.
Particularly, among the five largest economies in ASEAN (ASEAN-5)—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—growth is expected to be 4.6% this year and 4.5% next year, clearly lower than in 2024.
For Thailand, however, economic growth (GDP) is projected to reach 2% in 2025 and 1.8% next year, an upward revision from the previous forecast in the July report, which expected growth for the entire 2025 to be only 1.8%. However, the report also notes that political uncertainty might slow down public spending and overall investment.
