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Aidan Jones

Thailand’s election season has triggered a dizzying array of cash giveaway offers from parties vying for votes, from a US$2,000 payment for newborns to debt write-offs and US$100 monthly top-ups for the poorest households to combat pay worth US$6,300.
But economists warn that in a slowing economy saddled with debt amid political gridlock, such lavish pledges are highly unlikely to revive growth.
Many Thais, like 34-year-old Ton, see the handouts as a distraction from the deeper problems afflicting the Thai economy.
“My salary has not changed in years, but everything else has gone up in price,” said the hotel worker in Bangkok who earns 18,000 baht (US$580) a month and gave only one name.
“I am getting poorer and there is nothing any party can do without fixing the entire economy.”

Ton’s frustrations reflect a broader malaise that could shape how millions vote in the February 8 poll. Household debt hovers around 90 per cent of gross domestic product and the economy grew just 2 per cent last year – the slowest among Southeast Asia’s major economies – with forecasts pointing even lower in 2026.
Once Asia’s star economic performer, Thailand now risks being overtaken by Vietnam within a decade, according to forecasters at the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The country has cycled through three prime ministers since the last election in 2023, leaving little space for coherent policymaking.
But the appetite for big-ticket promises, emblazoned on election posters across the country, remains undimmed.

Bidding for votes
The Democrat Party is dangling payments of 65,000 baht (US$2,080) for new parents in a bid to drive up the country’s birth rate as it rapidly ages. Thailand’s oldest party, led by former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, is touting clean government and sensible spending as a vote winner.
His conservative, royalist party has little chance of winning the election, but could yet play a role in deciding who ultimately governs.
The United Thai Nation Party, born of the 2014 coup and backed by army generals, is offering hefty incentives for military service – 30,000 baht for voluntary enlistment and 200,000 baht for combat duty – after last year’s deadly clashes with Cambodia raised fears of a broader border war.

Pheu Thai, meanwhile, is returning to the populist pledges that saw it sweep Thailand’s elections in the first decades of this century, albeit under a variety of names.
Thaksin Shinawatra’s political vehicle, now under the leadership of his nephew Yodchanan Wongsawat, promises expansive debt forgiveness, 20-baht daily public transport passes in Bangkok and cash top-ups to ensure Thailand’s poorest earn at least 3,000 baht per month.
Yodchanan has also proposed a 10-year plan coupling digital innovation with his party’s war on poverty, pitching technology investment as the key to a productivity revival in a televised interview on Monday.

But voters are unlikely to have forgotten that Pheu Thai’s last campaign pledge – a 10,000-baht digital cash handout – was only partly delivered, while its flagship casino tourism plan collapsed amid coalition infighting.
Then there is the People’s Party, which won the popular vote in 2023 under a previous incarnation before being sidelined by the conservative establishment.
Nothing less than Thailand’s reputation as Asia’s “fifth tiger” is on the line, according to Veerayuth Kanchoochat, one of the party’s candidates for prime minister.
“If the Thai economy does not recover within the next five years, the ‘fifth tiger of Asia’ will permanently become nothing more than local folklore,” he said on Sunday, referring to the four “Asian tiger” economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea that became renowned for their rapid industrialisation and export-led growth from the 1960s to the 1990s.

His party has pledged to curb the influx of cheap Chinese imports, tighten control over the grey economy and push manufacturing up the value chain into high-value sectors such as semiconductors.
Trailing just behind the People’s Party in opinion polls is Bhumjaithai, led by caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who has shrewdly positioned himself as a stabilising force.
His party is eschewing cash handouts, instead promising policies aimed at older voters: life insurance, cancer care guarantees, job creation schemes and targeted grants.
“Our focus is not on giving away fish,” he said in a television appearance on Monday. “We focus on giving Thai people the fishing hooks.”

Whoever wins, economists say Thailand needs more stability – rather than cash giveaways – to escape stagnation.
“The faster we can establish political stability, the better for the policy implementation and overall confidence,” said Pimnara Hirankasi, chief economist at Krungsri, Thailand’s fifth-largest bank.
“But in the long term, what really matters is whether the new government is willing and able to tackle our structural issues … these are deep-rooted problems that require serious policy commitment.”


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Thailand’s election turns into a cash splash contest to win votes

Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of Thailand’s Democrat Party, greets a woman and her baby during an election campaign event in Bangkok on Saturday. Photo: EPA

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Shoppers buy food from a bakery at a shopping centre in Bangkok earlier this month. Photo: EPA

United Thai Nation Party leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga (centre) and other party members attend the registration of constituency candidates in Bangkok last month. Photo: Reuters

Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate Yodchanan Wongsawat (right) and former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sit together on stage during the party’s first major pre-election event in Bangkok last Thursday. Photo: AFP

Supporters of the People’s Party attend a general election campaign rally in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Thailand’s caretaker prime minister and Bhumjaithai Party leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, greets a stallholder during an election campaign event in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: EPA

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Pita Limjaroenrat (centre) at the Thai parliament in 2024. Pita was blocked from office over a 2023 campaign bid to reform Thailand’s lèse-majesté law. Photo: AFP

People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut (centre) arrives on December 28 for the first day of registration for constituency candidates for Thailand’s coming general election. Photo: AFP

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut on the campaign trail this week in Thailand. He is keen to show he can provide “real change” for the Thai people in the election on February 8. Photo: Aidan Jones

People’s Party supporters hold placards and cheer for their party during registration of prime ministerial candidates for the 2026 general election in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 28. Photo: EPA

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Residents flee Srei Snam district in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province on Monday after a Thai air strike. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Presse/Xinhua

US President Donald Trump (right) claps as Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet (centre) and Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul hold up a signed ceasefire agreement on October 26. Photo: AFP

Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack in Kantharalak district, Thailand’s Sisaket province, on Monday. Photo: AP

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Anutin Charnvirakul draws number 37 for Bhumjaithai Party’s campaign during election registration in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: EPA

Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra (right) arrives with his daughter, ex-PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra, at the Supreme Court in Bangkok in September. Photo: TNS

People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut greets supporters in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: EPA

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Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrives with his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra (left) at the Supreme Court in Bangkok in September. Photo: TNS

Pheu Thai Party’s Yodchanan Wongsawat leaves after a drawing at a candidate registration in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: AP

People’s Party leader and prime ministerial candidate Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut greets supporters in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: EPA

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From US$2,000 for newborns to debt write-offs, Thai political parties are dangling a raft of handouts in a bid to woo voters on February 8


From US$2,000 for newborns to debt write-offs, Thai political parties are dangling a raft of handouts in a bid to woo voters on February 8.


Thailand’s election turns into a cash splash contest to win votes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From US$2,000 for newborns to debt write-offs, Thai political parties are dangling a raft of handouts in a bid to woo voters on February 8

From US$2,000 for newborns to debt write-offs, Thai political parties are dangling a raft of handouts in a bid to woo voters on February 8