The government is determined to resolve the problem of the high cost of living in the long run, Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan said on Saturday.
Speaking on the "Yingluck Government Meets the People" weekly programme on NBT, Mr Niwatthamrong said the Agriculture Ministry would monitor agricultural product prices from farm to table to help reduce production costs of farmers and minimise costs for consumers.
At the same time, he said, the Energy Ministry would monitor fuel and cooking gas prices, while the Commerce ministry would be responsible for marketing to ensure fair prices for essential good in the long term, he said.
Inflation in June was 2.25%, a four-year low, but prices of fresh food increased 3.5% from a year earlier, according to Commerce Ministry figures. Economists expect inflation to edge up in the second half, with higher fuel and food prices among the drivers.
Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said on the same programme that the government's financial status was still strong. Revenue from tax collection over the first nine months of the fiscal year that began on Oct 1, 2012 totalled 1.6 trillion baht, 80 billion baht higher than the target, he said.
Mr Kittiratt, also the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, projected tax collection revenue for 2013 at around 2.27 trillion baht.