Thailand hosted the IMF–World Bank annual meetings on 12–18 October 2026 with about 15,000 attendees from 191 countries. An academic estimates 1,050 million baht in spending over seven days, mostly hotels, food, domestic travel and shopping, under assumptions of 10,000 baht per person per day. Hotels, restaurants, transport and retail serving the event are the direct beneficiaries. The analyst says the real gains depend on follow-up deals, and he flags SME liquidity, household debt and a 2026 GDP forecast of 1.9% as ongoing pressures. For SMEs, the practical step is to look for business-matching or export-standard programmes linked to the event.