How to disable automatic import statements in VsCode October 2017

You can disable it by adding this line to your user or workspace settings (File>Preferences>Settings, or Code>Preferences>Settings).

"typescript.autoImportSuggestions.enabled": false

Ref.: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/38551

Updated for new version of VSCode 2019 for using the UI to modify the setting. So choose the File > Preference > Setting then search auto in the Workspace secton. Find the Javascrtip or Typescript with highlight word auto import then check or uncheck for enable / disalbe this function.

Here is the picture for reference.

"typescript.suggest.autoImports": false 
"javascript.suggest.autoImports": false

Fresh VS Code version. February 2019

As of August 2018 (1.25), the accepted answer doesn't always work.

Instead, add this line to your folder-specific setting.

{  "typescript.preferences.importModuleSpecifier": "relative" }

Don't figure what's going on here, but those automatic path changes never happen in my environment.