cover image: Thailand - Public Revenue and Spending Assessment : Promoting an Inclusive and Sustainable Future - Chapter 3 : Spending Trends and Priorities (English)

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Thailand - Public Revenue and Spending Assessment : Promoting an Inclusive and Sustainable Future - Chapter 3 : Spending Trends and Priorities (English)

1 Jun 2023

Public spending has a critical role to play in supporting Thailand's long-term development goals and securing fiscal sustainability. Chapter 1 highlighted that Thailand's long-term fiscal sustainability is dependent on economic growth, which in turn hinges on structural reforms to enhance productivity. Human and physical capital accumulation are key pillars of the structural reform agenda, as they can drive higher productivity and economic growth, poverty reduction, and improved wellbeing. The composition and quality of public spending is key in building human and physical capital, and thus has a critical role to play in supporting this agenda. This chapter and subsequent chapters focus on the key components of growth, and welfare-enhancing spending. The following chapters analyze the adequacy, efficiency, and equity of public spending related to the accumulation of human capital, education, health, and social protection. This chapter has two objectives: (i) to put spending in these social sectors in the context of overall public spending; and (ii) to undertake a deeper analysis of public investment spending. It does this by first assessing the overall level of spending in relation to peers and outlining the broad structure of spending by levels of government. Overall spending is then disaggregated by function (health, education, etc.) and by economic classification (wages, goods and services, capital spending, etc.), using Thailand's performance on the Human Capital Index (HCI) relative to its peers to provide context and broad framing for the subsequent discussion of the adequacy, efficiency, and effectiveness of social sector spending. Historical trends are analyzed, and the composition of spending is compared with international benchmarks to identify potential allocative inefficiencies and whether rigidities in spending are likely to constrain the ability of the government to respond to emerging pressures. Particular attention is paid to the response to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine and its impact on spending in these social sectors. The chapter then turns to public investment and the public capital stock: assessing its adequacy, efficiency, and quality, and outlining recommendations to boost the capacity of the government to implement these investments and raise their quality. The chapter concludes with a summary of key findings.
thailand health east asia and pacific human capital for growth central government central agencies social protection and growth public expenditure for education

Authors

World Bank

Disclosure Date
2023/05/26
Disclosure Status
Disclosed
Doc Name
Thailand - Public Revenue and Spending Assessment : Promoting an Inclusive and Sustainable Future - Chapter 3 : Spending Trends and Priorities
Product Line
Advisory Services & Analytics
Published in
United States of America
Rel Proj ID
TH-Thailand: Public Expenditure Review -- P177157
Sector
Central Government (Central Agencies)
Unit Owning
EFI-EAP-MTI-MacroFiscal-2 (EEAM2)
Version Type
Final
Volume No
1

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