Inflation will rise slightly after increasing civil service salaries

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Thailand’s Commerce Ministry said last Friday a plan to increase civil servants’ salaries by 8 percent, expected to start in 2015, would impact inflation in the country only 0.05 percent, said Ampawan Pichalai, director of Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office.

Ampawan said inflation in Thailand would be affected marginally after the increase because Thailand’s economy has still not fully recovered while goods production is still not at full capacity and bank interest rates remain unchanged.

Ampawan Pichalai, director of Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office.Ampawan Pichalai, director of Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office.

She argued that the increase in civil servants’ salaries would help boost consumers’ purchasing power and simultaneously assist in helping the country’s economy recover faster.

It is forecast that inflation during the second half of this year would stand around 2.4 to 2.5 percent.