Thailand’s inflation accelerated in October, but still below central bank target

BANGKOK: Thailand’s annual headline inflation rate accelerated in October due to rising energy and food prices, the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday, but still remained below the central bank’s target range of 1 to 3 percent.

The headline consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.83 percent in October from a year earlier, according to the Commerce Department. That was below the 0.94 percent growth forecast in a Reuters poll and followed September’s annual growth of 0.61 percent. The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.77 percent in October from a year earlier, in line with the 0.79 percent rise forecast in the survey. For the January to October period, annual average headline inflation was 0.26 percent and core inflation was 0.52 percent.

The Commerce Ministry kept its annual inflation forecast at 0.2% to 0.8%, and Punpong Nayanapakorn, director of the ministry’s trade policy and strategy division, told reporters the 2024 rate would likely be below 0.5%. Inflation is forecast to be above 1 percent in November and December, so it is expected to be around 1.12 percent in the final quarter of 2024, Punpong told a news conference.