Consumer prices rose for the fourth straight month in April, driven by fresh food and vegetables, rice and flour, and meat and poultry, as well as higher oil prices.
The consumer price index (CPI), which gauges headline inflation, rose by 1.23% last month from April last year but eased from a 1.24% surge in March. The uptick was 0.73% year-on-year in February and 0.27% in January.
The increase was led by fresh vegetables such as chillies, green onions and long beans, whose prices were up 12.7% because of low supply caused by hot and dry weather.
Milled rice and flour prices and those of livestock products such as meat, poultry and fish were up equally by 3.33% from the same month last year, and domestic oil prices gained 2.72% on the same period a year ago.
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.44% in April after 0.41% and 0.24% increases in March and February and against a 0.02% contraction in January. The rise was attributed to higher transport and communication prices, especially public bus services, house rents, power bills, and medical and personal care expenditure.
Of the 422 product and service items used to gauge inflation, the prices of 243 items such as pork, eggs, milled rice, house rent and oil rose last month. Prices fell for 95 items, including white shrimp, oranges, bananas, grapes and tobacco, while the remaining items saw no change.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.61% year-on-year in April and 0.06% from March.
For the first four months, headline inflation averaged 0.86%. Core inflation stood at 0.62% for the period.
Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director- general of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said the office will closely observe prices of fresh vegetables because they are likely to stay relatively high in the near term.
"We're afraid fresh vegetable supply may see a shortage in the coming months because of drought and dry weather," she said, adding that weather factors are expected to weigh on domestic food prices and overall inflation over the next few months.
But the ministry is still maintaining its headline inflation forecast at an average of 1.2% this year or in a range of 0.7-1.7%.
Ms Pimchanok said oil prices in the second and third quarters last year were much higher than in 2019 to date. Crude oil has traded at US$60-70 a barrel this year versus $72.09 and $74.29 in the second and third quarters of last year.