{"id":736610,"date":"2026-06-14T17:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736610\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:47:20","slug":"southeast-asias-second-largest-economy-lifts-2026-growth-forecast-to-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736610\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Asia’s second largest economy lifts 2026 growth forecast to 2%"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Southeast<\/p>\n

\nTourists shop for street food in Bangkok’s Chinatown, Thailand, May 16, 2025. Photo by Reuters\n<\/p>\n

Thailand has raised its 2026 economic growth forecast to 1.6-2% as strong demand for AI-related technology and data center infrastructure continues to fuel exports.\t<\/p>\n

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) lifted its GDP growth forecast for for the Southeast Asia’s second largest economy from the previous range of 1.2-1.6%.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a JSCCIB meeting on June 10, Payong Srivanich, Chairman of the Thai Bankers\u2019 Association, said Thailand\u2019s exports rose by 18.9% in the first four months of the year, with technology-related exports surging 48.4%, in line with the strong export growth trend seen across many Asian economies.<\/p>\n

However, JSCCIB warned that the country\u2019s economy remains K-shaped, with the technology sector growing strongly but most businesses still facing high costs and weak purchasing power.<\/p>\n

Businesses are also facing mounting pressure from rising input costs, potential supply shortages, and weakening domestic consumer demand amid increasing living expenses.<\/p>\n

One of the key drivers supporting growth is the “Thais Help Thais Plus” stimulus scheme, valued at approximately 170 billion THB (US$5.1 billion), which is expected to boost domestic spending.<\/p>\n

On that basis, JSCCIB also revised its 2026 export growth forecast upward to 8\u201310%, compared with its previous projection of zero growth. It also raised its inflation forecast to 2.5\u20133%, from the earlier range of 2.0\u20133%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tourists shop for street food in Bangkok’s Chinatown, Thailand, May 16, 2025. Photo by Reuters Thailand has raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,2059],"class_list":["post-736610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-southeast-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}