approximately $155 billion and is growing at the rate of 6.7% per year.
Glassman cites the role of "US Fordism" and of "Japanese quasi-hegemony" in fueling Thailand's growth. Currently, a major creditor of Thailand's development economy is the Japan Bank for International Co-operation, and Japan is the country's major trading partner.
As of 2003, Thai authorities were predicting that Thailand's $4.8-billion debt to the International Monetary Fund would be completely paid by May 2005. In August of that year Thailand made an early repayment of $12 billion borrowed from the International Monetary Fund, a function of Thailand's now buoyant financial condition. Thailand's prime minister was forecasting an annual growth rate of 4.5% and stating that 74 billion out of 80 billion baht earmarked for village development had been disbursed. International trade represented Thailand's principal source of income. Its principal industrial export sectors were electronics, iron, steel, and auto parts, as well as vehicle manufacturing. Thai authorities cite disappointment with three areas of development: delays in construction of the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, scheduled for 2005 completion but expected to be completed only by 2007; disarray in the country's telecommunications infrastructure;, and dependence on expensive imported oil, exacerbated by the U.S.-Iraq War.
Industrial commerce and foreign trade account for 80% of Thailand's GDP, a fact that reinforces analyses of the country's economy that emphasize its "internationalist dimensions." International participation in Thailand's economy, indeed, explains much about its resiliency at the macroeconomic level--and the costs of international participation at the microeconomic level.
According to U.S. government figures, Thailand's agricultural sector accounted for 9.4% of the country's GDP in 2003, with industry accounting for 44% and services for just over 46%. The Thai econ...