Consumer prices fall for second consecutive month
Consumer prices in Thailand declined 0.05 per cent year on year in June, due mainly to lower prices of vegetables and fresh fruit.
Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), said on Monday that this represented the second consecutive monthly fall in consumer prices.
“Vegetable and fruit groups were the main inflation factors in June. Last year, their price bases were high, given the drought. But this year, there’s no drought,” she said.
Vegetable prices fell 9.71 per cent from the corresponding period last year, while fresh-fruit prices decreased 4.87 per cent.
However, in the first half of the year, overall consumer prices edged up 0.67 per cent, Pimchanok said.
In the latter half of this year, headline inflation is not expected to rise sharply following the drop in the price of crude oil.
The TPSO has revised down its forecast for this year’s headline inflation to 0.7-1.7 per cent, from the earlier estimate of 1.5-2.2 per cent, she added.
