Thailand’s digital economy expands 5.7% in 2024
DES minister puts the expansion down to successful policies implemented by the governments of Srettha and PM Paetongtarn
Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Prasert Chanthararuangthong announced on Friday that Thailand’s digital economy is projected to grow by 5.7% this year.
He attributed this growth to the effective implementation of digital economy policies by the governments of both former prime minister Srettha Thavisin and his successor, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Prasert explained that the growth in Thailand’s digital economy was measured using chained volume measures (CVM), which showed growth that was more than two-fold higher than the overall 2.2% GDP growth as projected by the National Economy and Society Development Council (NESDC).
CVM is a way of measuring economic growth that adjusts for changes in prices over time and is considered to be more accurate than traditional measures.
Prasert noted that exports of digital goods and services are projected to grow by 17.2%, which is 2.8 times higher than the overall export growth rate of 6.1% as projected by the NESDC.
The minister also said that thanks to government support, two major conglomerates are set to invest in AI and data centres in Thailand early next year with a combined investment value of approximately 100 billion baht.
Wetang Phuangsup, secretary-general of the National DES Board, said the broad digital GDP this year is estimated to reach 4.44 trillion baht, representing a 5.7% increase from the previous year. The growth was driven by private sector digital investments, expanding by 2.8% from last year, and government digital investments growing by 4.5%.
Wetang added that private consumption in the digital economy increased by 5.6%, while government consumption rose by 11.4%.
The top-performing digital industries this year were digital content (12.64%) and telecom (10%).
