In April, consumer prices rose 0.02% over the previous month, which followed the 0.17% increase observed in March and marked the slowest increase in three months. According to the Ministry of Commerce, April’s increase mainly resulted from higher prices for housing and transport.
Consumer prices fell 1.0% over the same month last year, which followed March’s 0.6% drop and marked the fastest decrease since July 2009. As a consequence, annual inflation is well below the Central Bank’s tolerance margin of plus/minus 1.5 percentage points around its target of 2.5%. Core consumer prices, which exclude prices for energy and fresh food, rose 0.11% over the previous month (April: -0.06% month-on-month). Annual core inflation fell from 1.3% in March to 1.0% in April, the lowest level in over a year.
The Bank of Thailand projects that inflation will average 2.1% in 2015. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect inflation to average 2.1% in 2015, which is down 0.2 percentage points from last month’s Consensus. For 2016, panelists see average inflation at 2.5%