The report attributes Thailand's strong economic growth to the government's prudent financial management. Its policies have resulted in a government budget surplus since 1988, an inflation rate of less than five per cent and an unemployment rate of less than three percent. The share of exports in GDP has risen continuously for the past four years, from 32 per cent in 1990 to 41 per cent in 1994.
Thailand has continued with its tariff reform which it began in 1990. Measures initiated in January 1995 will reduce the maximum tariff from 100 per cent to 30 per cent in most cases and will lower rates on some 4,000 items, thereby cutting the average applied tariff from about 30 per cent in 1994 to 17 per cent by 1997. One main exception, states the report, concerns automobiles where the average tariff will remain about 38 per cent, with other rates ranging to 80 per cent.