The farm price index rose for the first time in 22 months in February, largely because of an increase in paddy price and a smaller decline in rubber prices, says the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO).
The agricultural product price index increased 0.7% year-on-year in February, the first rise since April 2017 when the index gained 2.4%, said Warotai Kosolpisitkul, a policy adviser to the FPO. Rice and rubber prices have a combined weighting of 40% in the index.
Apart from rice and rubber, prices of other farm products including tapioca and fruit also improved last month, he said.
Even though the Thai economy has been growing at its potential of around 4-5%, the farming sector has not benefited from the growth because of soft farm prices.
Mr Warotai said the Thai economy last month remained stable, despite the dismal export figures, because of higher farm prices and improving consumption and investment.
In February, commercial pickup sales, a proxy for private investment, soared 9%, with one-tonne pickups jumping 10.1%, while property-related tax rose 7.4%.
Foreign tourists arriving in Thailand last month were down 0.2% from a year earlier to 3.57 million because of a decline in Chinese tourists.
Tourism income fell 0.8% year-on-year in February to 192 billion baht.
In separate news, Lavaron Sangsnit, director-general of the FPO, said adoption of QR code payment standards in Asean will be at the top of the agenda at the 23rd Asean Finance Ministers' Meeting and fifth Asean Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors' Meeting, scheduled for April 3-5 in Chiang Rai province.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have shown interest in connecting with the Bank of Thailand's standardised QR code payment system, while Singapore's Paynow is quite similar to Thailand's Promptpay, he said.
Linking Thailand's QR code payment with Cambodia and Laos will facilitate cross-border trade, said Mr Lavaron.
Cross-border QR code payment service in Asean initially will be provided through partnerships with each bank.
Adoption of the Asean Single Window system, an integrated platform for facilitating trade through faster clearance of cargo and release of shipments, throughout the 10-member bloc will be another priority for discussion at the meeting, he said.