BANGKOK- Thailand’s inflation rate quickened in January in line with analysts’ expectations, staying in the target range for the second consecutive month and lifted by higher energy and food prices, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.
The Thai headline consumer price index rose 1.32 percent in January from a year earlier, within the central bank’s target range of 1 percent to 3 percent, after the previous month’s annual increase of 1.23 percent, the ministry said.
The figure compared with a forecast rise of 1.30 percent in a Reuters poll.
The core CPI was up 0.83 percent in January from a year earlier, versus a forecast increase of 0.80 percent.
Headline inflation in February should be close to January’s level and at about 1.1 percent to 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2025, PoonpongNaiyanapakorn, director of the ministry’s trade policy and strategy office, told a press conference.
“The current inflation is appropriate” for the economy, he said.
The ministry is maintaining its headline inflation forecast at between 0.3 percent and 1.3 percent in 2025, after last year’s 0.40 percent.
Last week, Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told Reuters headline inflation was expected to be 1.1 percent this year and the current policy interest rate at 2.25 percent was appropriate, but the central bank was prepared to adjust it if the situation changes.
The central bank left the rate unchanged in December after a surprise quarter-point cut in October. The next policy review is on February 26.
On Monday, Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul said the ministry wanted to see a cut in the key rate this year and would discuss monetary policy easing with the central bank.
Thailand’s economy is still expected to grow between 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent this year despite intensifying global trade wars and increased competition from imported goods, a leading joint business group said on Wednesday.
Domestic demand remains weak while the strengthening of the baht poses a challenge to exports, a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking said.
