November 2, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai consumer prices rose for the first time this year in October, the commerce ministry said Monday.
Inflation was up 0.4 percent year-on-year compared with a 1.0 percent fall in September, owing to rises in prices in the food and beverage sector, said the ministry's permanent secretary Yanyong Phuangrach.
"It was the first rise following nine months of contraction," he said.
In the first ten months of 2009 overall, the ministry said Thai inflation dropped 1.5 percent, mainly from a fall in oil prices.
But consumer prices in the fourth quarter of the year are expected to rise 1.5 percent, lifting the total inflation for 2009 to between minus 1.0 percent and 1.0 percent.
The ministry projects inflation in 2010 to rise between 3.0 and 3.5 percent.
The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile energy and food costs, slipped by 0.1 percent in October from a year earlier.
