Thailand's inflation drops on price control measures

Thailand's inflation dropped slightly in June, which resulted from the military junta's measures to maintain prices of commodity products, the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.
The Consumer Price Index stood at 107.79 in June, down 0.10 percent from May 2014, adviser to the ministry Ampawan Pichalai said, adding the figure climbed by 2.35 percent year-on-year.
Ampawan attributed the inflation drop to the National Council for Peace and Order's measures to cap prices of cooking gas, diesel and other commodity products.
The inflation rate throughout 2014 is projected to average out at 2.4 percent and will not exceed 2.8 percent, according to the ministry.
In a related development, the Bank of Thailand, or the central bank, said Monday that "overall economic activities in May 2014 picked up slightly from the previous month" and manufacturing production and private-sector spending "started to show signs of recovery."
But the tourism sector was further affected by protests and the political upheavals which prompted several countries to raise their travel advisory levels, the bank said in a statement.
The number of foreign tourist in May, totaling 1.7 million, were 10.7 percent lower than the level of previous year as " tourist arrivals from Asia, especially China and Malaysia, decreased," it said.