Thailand's Macroeconomic Miracle: Stable Adjustment and Sustained Growth

Relates how Thailand successfully adjusted its macroeconomic policies during the 1970s and early 1980s so that it was less adversely affected by the prevailing economic turbulence than virtually any other oil-importing developing country. An intensive World Bank study of recent macroeconomic policy reviewed the experience of 18 countries that were attempting to maintain economic stability in the face of international price, interest rate, and demand shocks, or domestic crises in the form of investment booms and related budgetary problems. The project focused on the 1974-79 period, covering two oil price shocks, the 1980-82 period of worldwide recession and external debt problems, and the 1983-90 period of adjustment to economic difficulties and renewed growth. This report, a product of that study, relates how Thailand successfully adjusted its macroeconomic policies during the 1970s and early 1980s so that it was less adversely affected by the prevailing economic turbulence than virtually any other oil-importing developing country. The results show the importance of cautious macroeconomic policies and reliance on market mechanisms as the principal means of resource allocation. The policies which produced this outcome in Thailand can be emulated by other developing countries. Distributed exclusively in Asia and nonexclusively in the rest of the world by Oxford University Press, Malaysia. The overall findings of the project are presented in a synthesis volume, Boom, Crisis, and Adjustment: The Macroeconomic Experience of Developing Countries. Stock No. 60891 / $60.00 / Price code S60