It may be useful to put the discussion of performance constraints of the Thai economy briefly in perspective. Over the past 2 decades, the Thai economy has been one of the best performing economies in the world, characterized by sustained high growth rates, averaging 10.3% 1985-90, and 8% in the years prior to the crisis (1990-96). This growth was accompanied by a dramatic decline in the incidence of absolute poverty, from 57% in 1962 to 14% in 1992, with per capita income increasing from $700 per annum in the late 1960s, to $2,700 in 1996. At the same time, rapid growth was accompanied by environmental degradation, resource depletion, and an increasingly unequal distribut