The sector contributes about 12 percent of GDP, but more importantly, it represents about a fifth of our total employment, so we got a very hard hit in terms of income and employment to our labor force. The slow recovery of the tourism sector explains why our recovery will be slow going forward and probably slower than other countries in the region. While things were difficult back then, we saw a GDP contraction of over 6 percent in the first year that Covid-19 hit Thailand, and we grew by only 1.6 percent last year, but things could have been much worse in terms of the Covid-19 impact on the economy. Without the large policy response by the government, both on the fiscal and monetary side, things could have been much worse. We estimated that the economy could easily contract up to 9 percent instead of 6 percent without the fiscal stimulus in 2020. Last year, instead of growing at 1.6 percent, we would have seen a contraction instead of growth. We got hit very hard, but it is helpful to keep in perspective that things could have been much worse, but they came out better than they otherwise would have. We are where we are today was due to the substantial, and for the most part, largely effective policy response. I spoke a bit about the response on the fiscal side at the Ministry of Finance in stimulating the economy.
One thing I would like to close on is to talk a bit more broadly about issues related to Thailand beyond the financial sector. Firstly, I would like to start by saying thank you. Thank you in the sense that policymakers in Thailand recognize that we are where we are today, largely thanks to our friends from Japan. Our success in building an export-driven economy is owing to the large inflow of Japanese foreign direct investment that came to us after the Plaza Accord. Over the years, such investment has contributed significantly and substantially to the improved living standards in Thailand today, and again, thank you for that. I think our partnership is something that we both benefited from as Thailand benefits from the partnership with Japan, and Japanese firms have also benefited from being here in Thailand. We recognize that things are different now, and the reasons that brought you here to Thailand back then are probably not the same reasons that will bring in new investment today. Therefore, we need to look a bit beyond and think about a new investment thesis for Thailand. Back then, we were a rapidly growing economy in the years before the Asian financial crisis, growing at a rate close to 10 percent a year. People were talking about Thailand becoming a newly industrialized economy at that time. That story is very different now, but I do think Thailand is still a good place to do business.