Food merchants to increase prices if state stops supporting gas price
The rising prices of consumer goods, especially food ingredients, oil and cooking gas prices, point to an upward trajectory for the overall cost of living, and this situation is likely to continue unless the economy recovers fully from the fallout of the pandemic.
The highly contagious Omicron strain has put a damper on the economy, affecting the recovery of the business sector and the purchasing power of households.
Although the government has slowly announced measures to ease the cost of living of citizens, such as fixing the prices of various products like cooking gas, chicken, pork, etc, consumers are still concerned and affected by the rising cost of living, especially food expenses.
The measure to fix the price of home cooking gas at 318 baht per 15kg tank ends on March 31, with the first step-up adjustment to 333 baht/tank, before moving to the next level at 363 baht/tank.
Vendors say they are heavily impacted by rising raw material costs, but they are still selling food at the same price to help consumers, in the process earning less. However, they will reconsider the pricing if there are unforeseen events. They are urging the government to take care of this problem.
The January consumer confidence survey saw the first decline in five months partly due to the impact of high oil prices, raw materials and higher prices that have pushed inflation up. There is a chance that inflation in the first half of the year will be as high as 3 per cent.
The consumer confidence index in February is likely to decline further, the main factors being expensive and higher oil prices, concerns about the slow economy recovery and the spread of the Omicron strain.