Thailand Import Growth Below Estimates

Thailand’s imports rose 25.1% year-on-year to USD 37.10 billion in August 2026, slowing from a 36.7% surge in the previous month and marking the weakest growth since December 2025. The latest result also fell short of market expectations for a 33% increase, suggesting softer domestic demand and investment activity. Still, purchases increased across all major categories: fuel (42.8%), capital goods (33.9%), other goods (27.4%), raw materials and intermediate goods (21.3%), transport equipment (13.6%), and consumer goods (1.3%). By commodity, imports rose for most components, including machinery and components (61.4%), crude oil (58.2%), computers (57.2%), other metal ores and scrap (41.2%), plants (24.6%), jewelry and gold (22.3%), chemicals (19.4%), and circuit boards (17.8%). In contrast, imports fell for iron and steel (-2.2%) and electrical machinery (-1.1%). In the first eight months of 2026, total arrivals surged 36.1% from the same period in 2025 to USD 303.9 billion.

Thailand’s imports rose 36.7% year-on-year to USD 38.40 billion in July 2026, easing from a 50.3% surge in the previous month that marked the fastest increase since June 2021. The latest figure came in below market expectations of 42.2%, underscoring waning policy support for household demand and capital outlays. Still, purchases grew across all major categories: fuel (54.4%), raw materials and intermediate goods (41.1%), capital goods (39.0%), other goods (35.6%), transport equipment (20.1%), (22.2%), and consumer goods (4.0%). By commodity, imports rose for most components, including circuit boards (161.9%), machinery and components (59.7%), computers (71.1%), crude oil (68.0%), natural gas (56.6%), other metal ores and scrap (31.8%), chemicals (23.4%), iron and steel (6.1%), and electrical machinery (0.7%). In contrast, purchases of jewelry and gold fell 27.4%. In the first seven months of 2026, total imports climbed 37.8% from the same period in 2025 to USD 266.9 billion.

Thailand’s imports surged 50.3% yoy to USD 41.19 billion in June 2026, sharply accelerating from a 35.1% growth in the prior month and easily topping market forecasts of 35.8%. It was the fastest pace of purchases since June 2021, boosted by robust domestic demand and government measures to spur consumer spending and capital investment despite the impact of the Middle East war. Purchases grew across all major categories: raw materials and intermediate goods (71.2%), capital goods (42.7%), transport equipment (41.2%), fuel (39.5%), other products (22.2%), and consumer goods (12.3%). By commodity, imports rose across the board, driven by circuit boards (139.7%), machinery and components (64.1%), crude oil (56.7%), plants (56.0%), other metal ores and scrap (54.3%), computers (52.8%), chemicals (46.5%), iron and steel (19.7%), electrical machinery (13.6%), and jewelry and gold (3.7%). In the first half of 2026, total imports climbed 38.0% from the same period in 2025 to USD 228.5 billion.