Price controls to ease soon
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Consumers can expect to face a higher cost of living next year as the Commerce Ministry intends to lift its heavy hand on prices after more than three years.
“The government will not stringently control goods prices next year, but will allow them to adjust reasonably to balance the benefits between producers and consumers,” Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said yesterday.
However, to ensure that the cost of living will not rise too much next year, the government will let non-governmental organisations and the private sector pressure the Bank of Thailand into lowering its policy rate. That would to help businesses to keep their operating costs down, even though labour costs will be heading up next year, he said.
Kittiratt was speaking after presiding over his ministry’s “Economic Stimulation Fair: To Cope with the Flood Aftermath”, which kicked off yesterday and runs until Wednesday at Muang Thong Thani.
The ministry will allow goods prices to float after capping them for several years to reflect the real economy, while allowing the market mechanism to do its work.
“The government will support consumers by increasing labour wages so that they have higher purchasing power, while businesses will be allowed to make reasonable price adjustments.
“Consumers should not suffer much from the higher cost of living as the increase in the cost of production is expected to be slight and the impact from higher labour wages will be less than predicted,” he said.
