OREANDA-NEWS. BMI View: Thailand's private healthcare providers will be well positioned for growth. Supporting this trajectory is the country's popularity as a medical tourism destination, augmenting domestic demand for medical services. Private hospitals also have the opportunity to expand into frontier markets in Indochina - such as Myanmar and Vietnam. This will, in turn, shape the sales channels for pharmaceutical firms with high-value pharmaceuticals. Political instability is a pertinent risk to this growth outlook, especially as it could deter medical tourists to the country.

Headline Expenditure Projections

- Pharmaceuticals: THB152.9bn (USD4.5bn) in 2015 to THB161.0bn (USD4.6bn) in 2016; +5.3% in local currency terms and +1.9% in US dollar terms.

- Healthcare: THB841.2bn (USD24.6bn) in 2015 to THB892.3bn (USD25.2bn) in 2016: +6.1% in local currency and +2.6% in US dollar terms. Absolute figures revised up after inclusion of new WHO data.