In the third quarter of 2025, Thailand's GDP increased by 1.2% compared to the same period last year. This growth rate is a deceleration from the 2.8% observed in the second quarter and fell below market forecasts of 1.6%. The third-quarter growth rate represents the slowest expansion since the third quarter of 2021, when the economy experienced a contraction. This sluggish growth was attributed to softened increases in fixed investment (1.1% compared to 5.8% in Q2) and a reduction in government spending (-3.9% compared to 2.2% in Q2). Despite these constraints, private consumption growth held steady at 2.6%, mirroring the previous quarter. The reduction in government expenditure was mainly due to decreases in employee compensation and social transfers in kind.
Externally, exports rose by 6.9%, though this was lower than the 11.2% growth in the previous quarter, yet still surpassed the import increase of 4.6% (down from 10.8% in Q2), thus positively contributing to the GDP. On the production side, growth decelerated in both the agricultural sector (1.9% compared to 6.4% in Q2) and the non-agricultural sector (1.2% compared to 2.5% in Q2). Industrial output declined by 1%, reflecting a downturn from a 0.8% increase in the second quarter, while the services sector growth moderated to 2.3% from 3.4% in Q2. Throughout the first nine months of 2025, the overall economic growth was reported at 2.4%.
