March Inflation Rises 3.14% Year-On-Year in Thailand

Thailand’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation, stood at 100.49 or 3.14 per cent increase year-on-year, Yanyong Phuangrach permanent secretary of the Commerce Ministry said today (Apr 1).
The inflation rate is appropriate in line with the current economic conditions and is not as high as projected by several other agencies. It indicated stable growth of the Thai economy in accordance with government policies including measures to oversee the cost of living and the price of consumer goods.
The average consumer price index in the first quarter rose 3.01 per cent, compared to the same period last year. Compared to the previous month, the CPI in March rose 0.49 per cent with higher prices of fresh food and consumer goods including vegetables, eggs, dairy products, pork and uncooked chicken.
Meanwhile, the Core Consumer Price Index in March rose 1.62 per cent year-on-year, and 0.28 per cent, compared to the previous month.
Commerce Minister forecast that inflation rate in 2011 will hover around 3.2-3.7 per cent on the assumption that the Dubai crude oil price remains around US$78-88 per barrel, the baht stays around 28-33 baht against the US dollar and the government extends its measures to help reduce cost of living for low-income earners.
In the second quarter, the inflation rate is likely to be 3.45 per cent. In addition to the global oil prices, floods in Thailand’s southern provinces are also risk factors which can cause rising prices of farm and agricultural products including shrimp, palm and rubber.
Prices of construction materials are likely to increase due to high demand. The production cost of some goods such as fertilizers, steel and soybean oil, using imported raw materials, will increase in line with the raw material prices in the global market. Moreover, salary rise of government officials by five per cent will affect the inflation rate by 0.06 per cent.
The Commerce Ministry will meet manufacturers of four product categories, asking for price rises after the ministry’s measure to cap goods prices ended on March 31.
The manufacturers of soybean oil will be the first called upon for a meeting to review the manufacturing cost structure in the first week of April.
(MCOT, Thailand, April 1, 2011)