YEAR-ON-YEAR INFLATION 0.38% IN SEPTEMBER

Consumer prices edged up 0.38 per cent year on year and 0.4 per cent month on month to 106.68 in September, said Pimchanok Vonkhorporn, deputy director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO). 

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages quickened 1.47 per cent year on year, driven mainly by a 6.78-per-cent climb in fruit prices, a 1.85-per-cent increase in eggs and dairy products, and a 1.61-per-cent rise in vegetable prices.

After an increase in the tobacco stamp duty, the prices of tobacco and alcoholic beverages jumped 13 per cent.

However, prices in the non-food and beverages group declined 0.24 per cent in September. Fuel prices dropped 2.58 per cent, while the cost of public-transport services fell 0.18 per cent, and housing and furnishing prices decreased 1.16 per cent. In the first nine months of this year, the inflation rate was 0.02 per cent, in positive territory for the first time since January 2015.

 

NIKKEI/THAI PMI DOWN 

 

The Nikkei Thailand Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 48.8 in September from 49.8 in August, marking the lowest reading since the inception of the Thailand PMI last December. 

A reading above 50 indicates economic expansion, so these figures suggest contraction.

Samuel Agass, economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey, said: “September data highlighted broad-based declines across all the main sub-indices including output, new orders, employment and stocks of purchases, as goods producers faced weaker demand conditions.” – Nikkei Asian Review 

 

SEC TOLD TO AID START-UPS

 

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak yesterday instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission to find ways to support start-ups within three months. 

He said after meeting with the SEC that he wanted it to focus on helping start-ups raise funds via venture capital and angle angel funds because the size of the fund raising via the stock markets has been upgraded because of regulatory changes. Companies that wish to list on the Market for Alternative Investment are now required to have registered capital of at least Bt50 million.

“Given that start-ups typically have low capital with high risks, the SEC should help them get what they really want without regulations that are too tough,” he said.

Somkid said he had passed some of his ideas involving capital-market development to the SEC, focusing on how to make the secondary market responsive to new industries. 

Currently, the Stock Exchange of Thailand does not cover all types of industries, so the SEC should be proactive to encourage more companies to raise funds through the capital market, he said. 

Somkid also said he wanted to see the Thai stock market become a capital market for the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam).