เปิดตำนานยุคทองเศรษฐกิจไทย: จากเสือตัวที่ 5 สู่วิกฤตต้มยำกุ้ง
Summary
The golden age began with the Plaza Accord, which pushed Japanese manufacturers offshore and made Thailand a production hub in vehicles, electronics and textiles.
What made it work: liberal economic policy, capable and inexpensive labour, improving infrastructure, geographic advantage, and political and macroeconomic stability.
The result was 9.5% annual growth, rising incomes and falling poverty — until it ended in the Tom Yum Kung crisis.
Key points
The golden age began with someone else’s decision
The Plaza Accord happened in New York, not Bangkok — worth remembering when reading the success.
The conditions that lifted it do not last
Cheap labour is an advantage that expires by itself as a country gets richer.
9.5% a year genuinely happened
The figure shows how far today’s growth rate sits from the past.
The 1997 crisis belongs to the same story
What drove the rise and what caused the fall are continuous causes, not separate episodes.