October inflation reaches 2.38%

[Jonathan Fairfield]

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - The increasing fuel price and flooding disaster have put mounting pressure on the economy, leading to higher inflation. Due to these factors, the inflation rate last month reached 2.38%.

 

The Ministry of Finance reported a 2.38% inflation rate in October this year, an increase from 1.68% in September.

 

According to the official analysis, the increase in fuel prices and certain grocery items, particularly fresh vegetables and eggs are among the factors contributing to this spike.

 

The pricing of 430 products and services was taken into consideration. A total of 226 items have shown an increase in price. The pricing of 71 items on this list remains unchanged, while the other 133 items saw a drop in price.

 

Thailand’s average inflation rate since January increased by 0.99%.

 

Mr. Ronnarong Phoolpipat, Director General at the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), said Thailand’s current inflation rate is not considered high when compared to the 5.4% rate of the U.S., 2.9% of the UK, and 2.6% of Vietnam.

 

The TPSO expects the country’s inflation rate to continue to increase over the remaining months of this year, but not at any rate higher than the current rate.

 

The office anticipates that the government’s action in capping the retail diesel price at 30 baht per liter, along with other aid measures for the logistics sector, will help prevent excessive inflation rates.

 

The TPSO is expecting the prices of fresh groceries to start going down as the flood situation improves, while other seasonal produce will start replacing these short-supplied ingredients in the market.

 

The TPSO projects Thailand’s overall inflation rate this year to stay within the margin of 0.8-1.2%.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-11-07

 

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[ThailandRyan]

Looking at the past 12 months in increasing prices the writing was on the wall for inflation.  I discussed it before but the staunch government supporters told me that it was all under control and there were plenty of reserves to outlast this downturn in the economy   

[khunPer]

Worth to look at the numbers over a little longer period, due to the Covic pandemic where consumer prices and inflation were very low a year ago, so just bringing the it up to "normal" inflation might relative looks like a huge price increase;  economic experts prefer 2 percent annual inflation rate.

 

Looking at the Thai Consumer Index the figure is 101.96 (let's say 102) per 31st. October. Last year it was 99.55, while end of 2018 was 100. So looked in that perspective 102 is not bad, it's 2 percent consumer price increase over nearly 3 years, whilst if looking against price index level in spring 2020 it's more than 5 percent consumer price increase...

 

[Pedrogaz]

Anyone believing an inflation rate of 2.4% is an idiot who has never been in a shop in the last decade.

[khunPer]

25 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Anyone believing an inflation rate of 2.4% is an idiot who has never been in a shop in the last decade.

Yes, some products became cheaper...

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

Anyone believing an inflation rate of 2.4% is an idiot who has never been in a shop in the last decade.

Vegetable prices especially almost doubled in the past week, the same with fruit.

[Doctor Tom]

20 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Vegetable prices especially almost doubled in the past week, the same with fruit.

and the quality has gone down, noticeably for root veg.