Thailand’s headline inflation at 2.89% in April, the highest rate in more than 3 years

[BANGKOK] Thailand’s headline consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.89 per cent in April from a year earlier, the biggest increase in more than three years, following a fall of 0.08 per cent in March, the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday (May 6).

High energy prices drove the increase, the ministry said, which was well above a forecast rise of 1.81 per cent in a Reuters poll.

It was the first annual increase in the headline CPI since March 2025, and largest increase since February 2023.

The ministry maintained its full-year inflation forecast of 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent this year, inside the central bank’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

The core CPI volatile energy and fresh food prices, rose by 0.83 per cent in April from a year earlier.

Headline inflation was projected to be 3.06 per cent in May due to energy prices, Nanthaphong Jiraleksapong, Director of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said at a press conference.

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Headline inflation in the second quarter was at 3.67 per cent, he said.

Nanthaphong said that although growth was slow and inflation was high, “the Thai economy was not experiencing stagflation”. REUTERS