The economy needs to find a new model of development to create sustainable growth and fairer benefits for people, say economists.
They point to low productivity, too little competition and politicians' lack of accountability for the consequences of their populist policies as among key challenges.
Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the economy consumes more oil than other economies, so sustainable growth would be put at risk if the oil price increases.
Businesses' failure to improve competitiveness to cope with higher wages means there is a need to tweak the economic structure.
Kirida Paopichirt, an economist with the World Bank, said a widening wealth gap has become the most important economic problem and would be tackled most efficiently by improving the quality of education.
She said students' test scores ranked on an international scale showed a high discrepancy in the quality of education between Bangkok and rural areas, especially in mathematics and sciences.
"The average test score of Thai students at secondary level has not improved during the past decade, and it has dropped in some years," she said.
An indicator for a knowledge-based economy produced by the World Bank showed Thailand fell six places over the past decade, whereas China and Vietnam moved up by seven and nine places respectively. This showed eroding competitiveness, Ms Kirida said.
A World Bank study showed that Bangkok gets the lion's share of the fiscal budget, while northeastern provinces with high inequality receive less, she said.
Patamawadee Suzuki, dean of the faculty of economics at Thammasat University, said monopolies have increased in the economy, especially in the energy and transport sectors. There is a lack of direction in economic development due in part to bureaucracy.
"The country obviously lacks a large pool of quality teachers, although it has been successful in the number of quality healthcare personnel in rural areas," she said.
She said Thailand's negotiating power in Southeast Asia has changed as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have increased economic strength.
Ammar Siamwalla, honorary economist of TDRI, said politicians' use of populist policies without proper accountability would significantly weaken the economy. Populist policies have spurred a patronage system between politicians and voters, resulting in a lack of regard for other dimensions such as sustainability and governance, he said.
"Take the paddy pledging programme. It is a catchy policy. The politicians showed their accountability to election campaigns by implementing it. But their accountability goes just halfway; they did not specify to voters how to deal with paddy storages and its fiscal consequences," Mr Ammar said.