Government expenditure and buoyant tourism played important roles in driving moderately stronger growth in Thailand in the first half of 2016. Growth in gross domestic product for the year as a whole is expected to slightly exceed the forecast in March, and for 2017 is still seen picking up to 3.5%. Inflation has returned after 15 months of declining consumer prices but will likely be lower this year than earlier projected. Robust growth in tourism is, together with weak imports, generating a larger current account surplus than earlier projected. Read more from Asian Development Outlook 2016 Update