After three years in which the economy suffered from Covid effects, I am sorry to say that 2023 will not be the year of economic recovery as everyone had hoped. The global economy will still be plagued by inflation threats and several adverse factors such as excessive debt and the Russia-Ukraine war. These negative factors prompted the World Bank to revise its global economic growth prospects downward from 3.0% to 1.7% for 2023. The key point is a marked slowdown from 2.9% growth in 2022.
The GDP growth projection for advanced economies is severely trimmed from 2.2% to 0.5%. China's GDP growth is also lowered from 5.2% to 4.3%. Thailand, whose economy is highly dependent on the world economy, cannot escape this global slowdown and our GDP growth rate projection for 2023 is cut from 4.3% to 3.6%.
I am now working on Thai economic prospects for 2023 for a private research house and my view on the Thai economy is more negative than that of the World Bank, based on weakening domestic purchasing power amid dwindling world demand. However, the 2023 economic picture is not the story for this article. I would rather leave that for another occasion.
