Government measures help relieve people's costs of living

BANGKOK, November 2 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Commerce says that the government's measures to control the prices of consumer products have helped ease people's costs of living. Pimchanok Vornkhoporn, Director-General of the ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), told journalists that people's burden from the costs of living has been relieved lately, thanks to the government's assistance through many approaches, including welfare measures. Pimchanok noted that Thailand's inflation has, thus, remained low at 0.4-1.0 per cent so far this year even though the country's inflation, gauged by the consumer price index (CPI), rose by 0.86 per cent last month alone, boosted by increased prices of vegetables and fruits during the annual nine-day vegetarian festival due to higher demand and limited supply of some vegetables in flood-affected areas recently. Besides, retail fuel prices on the domestic market have risen, as crude oil producing and exporting countries, including those in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), plan to extend the cut in their oil production until the end of 2018, from March 2018 as earlier announced. According to the TPSO chief, Thailand's average inflation rate stood at 0.62 per cent during the first 10 months of this year and should stand at 1.0 per cent during the 4th quarter of this year, resulting in a possibility that the country's average inflation rate throughout 2017 should remain in the 0.4-1.0 range and the Thai economy should grow by 3.0-4.0 per cent year-on-year, while the Thai baht should stand at 34 baht a US dollar. (TNA)