Thailand consumer prices continue to rise in August, albeit at a gradual pace

Consumer prices in Thailand continued to rally in August, although at a gradual pace, owing to relatively high food prices and recent rises in global crude oil prices.

Thailand’s headline consumer price index climbed 0.29 percent from a year ago in August, rising at a slightly faster pace than in July, data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed Thursday. However, on a month-over-month basis, prices edged down by 0.04 percent.

In addition, core consumer price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.79 percent from last year and 0.07 percent sequentially in August, largely in line with the poll's median forecasts of a 0.80 percent on-year rise and a 0.06 percent on-month increase.

For the first eight months of 2016, Thailand's headline CPI still fell 0.03 percent compared with the year-earlier period, while core CPI went up 0.74 percent, the ministry's report showed.