In 1955, Thailand began to see a ch

In 1955, Thailand began to see a change in its economy fueled by domestic and international politics. The power struggle between the two main factions of the Phibul regime—led by Police General Phao Sriyanonda and General (later, Field Marshal) Srisdi Dhanarajat—increased, causing Sriyanonda to unsuccessfully seek support from the U.S. for a coup against the Phibul regime. Luang Phibulsongkram attempted to democratize his regime, seeking popular support by developing the economy. He again turned to the U.S., asking for economic rather than military aid. The U.S. responded with unprecedented economic aid to the kingdom from 1955 to 1959.[30] The Phibulsongkram government also made important changes to the country's fiscal policies, including scrapping the multiple-exchange-rate system in favor of a fixed, unified system which was in use until 1984. The government also neutralized trade and conducted secret diplomacy with the People's Republic of China, displeasing the United States.
Despite his attempts to maintain power, Luang Phibulsongkram was deposed (with Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan and Police General Phao Sriyanonda) on 16 September 1957 in a coup led by Field Marshal Srisdi Dhanarajata. The Srisdi regime (in power from 1957 to 1973) maintained the course set by the Phibul regime with U.S. support after severing all ties with the People's Republic of China and supporting U.S. operations in Indochina. It developed the country's infrastructure and privatized state enterprises unrelated to that infrastructure. During this period a number of economic institutions were established, including the Bureau of Budget, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) and the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI). The National Economic and Social Development Plan[31] was implemented in 1961. During this period, the market-oriented Import-Substituting Industrialization (ISI) led to economic expansion in the kingdom during the 1960s.[32] According to former President Richard M. Nixon's 1967 Foreign Affairs article, Thailand entered a period of rapid growth in 1958 (with an average growth rate of 7 percent a year).[33]
From the 1970s to 1984, Thailand suffered from many economic problems: decreasing American investment, budget deficits, oil-price spikes and inflation. Domestic politics were also unstable. With the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia on 25 December 1978 Thailand became the front-line state in the struggle against communism, surrounded by three communist countries and a socialist Burma under General Ne Win. Successive governments tried to solve the economic problems by promoting exports and tourism,[34] still important for the Thai economy.
One of the best-known measures to deal with the economic problems of that time was implemented under General Prem Tinsulanonda's government, in power from 1980 to 1988. Between 1981 and 1984 the government devalued the national currency, the Thai baht (THB), three times. On 12 May 1981 it was devalued by 1.07 percent, from THB20.775/USD to THB21/USD. On 15 July it was again devalued, this time by 8.7 percent (from THB21/USD to THB23/USD). The third devaluation, on 2 November 1987, was the most significant: 15 percent, from THB23/USD to THB27/USD. The government also replaced the country's fixed exchange rate (where it was pegged to the U.S. dollar) with a "multiple currency basket peg system" in which the U.S. dollar bore 80 percent of the weight.[35] Calculated from the IMF's World Economic Outlook Database, in the period 1980–1984 the Thai economy had an average GDP growth rate of 5.4 percent.[36]