The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) is optimistic that the economy can grow by 4% next year, underpinned by a raft of government stimulus measures.
The 190-billion-baht mid-year budget earmarked for 18 provincial clusters and Village Funds is estimated to boost GDP in 2017 by 0.5 percentage points and economic growth could expand close to 4%, Krisada Chinavicharana, director-general of the FPO, said.
The FPO in October forecast economic growth will come in at 3.4% next year, up from 3.3% this year, but the projection does not take into account the hefty mid-year budget. The Finance Ministry's think tank is slated to officially review its growth forecast for 2017 in late January.
The FPO's 4% growth estimate is far more optimistic from the Bank of Thailand's forecast of 3.2% in 2017 and privately-owned research houses' 3-3.5% estimates.
However, Bank of Thailand governor Veerathai Santiprabhob recently said he sees upside risks to its 2017 forecast of 3.2% GDP growth if the US performs better than expected or the government manages to get its infrastructure projects off the ground ahead of schedule.
Mr Krisada said if the solid growth of foreign tourist arrivals and export recovery continue and the government and state enterprises' budget disbursements achieve their target, these factors will also give a boost to Southeast Asia's second-largest economy to be on course to reach the 4% growth potential.
The government has put all efforts into helping the country escape subpar growth and turn back to expand at its growth potential of 4-5%.
Thailand has been stuck in subpar growth over the past few years, with a 0.7% growth in 2014, 2.5% in 2015 and 3.3% for the nine months to September.
Mr Krisada said the 370-billion-baht investment budget earmarked by state enterprises in fiscal 2017, in addition to the government's investment budget expenditure, will be the growth driver next year.