Thailand drops five places in IMD World Competitiveness Ranking
Thailand has fallen five places in the latest World Competitiveness Ranking 2025, released on Tuesday (June 17), slipping to 30th place from 25th last year.
The ranking, compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), evaluates the competitiveness of 69 economies across four key pillars:
- Economic performance: Thailand dropped to 8th place from 5th last year.
- Government efficiency: This category saw the steepest decline, with Thailand falling to 32nd from 24th.
- Business efficiency: Thailand fell to 24th place, down from 20th last year.
- Infrastructure: Thailand’s position slipped to 47th from 43rd.
The report also outlined five key challenges facing Thailand in 2025:
- Formulate a multifaceted, agile strategy to tackle the tariff incidents.
- Explore options to stabilize the economy against geopolitics and geoeconomics uncertainty.
- Provide support to businesses especially SMEs to adjust and comply with global requirements on ESG.
- Develop quick-win interventions to close the talent gap in key industries.
- Engage private partnerships to help solve economic and social challenges the country faces.
In last year’s 2024 ranking, Thailand had made notable progress by climbing five places to 25th. However, the latest results see the country returning to its 2023 position at 30th.
Top 10 economies in the 2025 ranking:
- Switzerland (+1)
- Singapore (–1)
- Hong Kong (+2)
- Denmark (–1)
- United Arab Emirates (+2)
- Taiwan (+2)
- Ireland (–3)
- Sweden (–2)
- Qatar (+2)
- Netherlands (–1)
