BANGKOK (XINHUA) – Thailand’s headline inflation rate quickened in December 2024 and returned to the central bank’s target range, driven by higher fuel and food prices, official data showed yesterday.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.23 percent last month from a year earlier, quickening from a 0.95-per-cent increase in November, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The rise in December inflation brought the rate back within the Bank of Thailand’s target range of one to three per cent for the first time in seven months.
The core CPI, which excludes raw food and energy prices, increased 0.79 per cent year-on-year in December, edging down from a 0.80-per-cent gain in the previous month. For 2024, the Southeast Asian country’s headline CPI picked up 0.40 per cent compared to a year earlier.
Headline CPI is expected to range between 0.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent in 2025, fuelled by expansion in private investment and consumption, along with an uptrend in foreign tourist arrivals, said Director General of the Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office Poonpong Naiyanapakorn.
