Commerce: 2012 inflation rate below 3%

A Thai window cleaner works on a high rise building in central Bangkok.
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Permanent secretary for commerce Yanyong Puangraj remains confident that his ministry will be able to keep the inflation rate below three per cent this year.

Mr Yanyong reported that the consumer price index (CPI) for July was up 2.73 per cent from last July, to stand at 115.82, an increase of 0.35 per cent on June.

  The average general inflation rate over the first seven months of the year (Jan-July) weas up 2.92 per cent on the same period last year, he said.

The core CPI for July, which excludes food and energy, stood at 108.34, up 1.87 per cent on the same month last year and an increase of 0.03 per cent on June, he added.

The average core CPI over the first seven months of the year rose 2.30 per cent from the same period last year, said the permanent secretary.

The price index on food and beverage for July stood at 140.06, up 5.42 per cent from July 2011 and an increase of 0.47 per cent on June.

The price index for non-food and beverage for the month was up 1.03 per cent on last July and up 0.28 per cent on June, to stand at 101.96 per cent.

Mr Yanyong said his ministry would not review its export growth target for the year, previously set at 15 per cent

“Even though the eurozone debt crisis will hurt the export sector, we can stil leep the inflation below  three per cent”, he said