Thailand Risks Inheriting Asia’s Sick-Man Tag on Unrest: Economy

Thailand, once prized in Southeast Asia for its relative economic stability, is in danger of inheriting the “Sick Man of Asia” tag as the latest coup threatens to send investors scurrying toward once-riskier neighbors such as the Philippines and Myanmar.

Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are forecast to grow more than 5 percent this year, while Thailand is on the verge of a recession after gross domestic product shrank in the first quarter. The imposition of martial law was “credit negative” for Thailand, Moody’s Investors Service said May 22. Two weeks earlier, Standard & Poor’s raised the sovereign grade of the Philippines, which earned the “Sick Man” moniker for decades of limited growth.