BANGKOK, July 12 – The Thai government approved measures to control commodity prices to help ease public burden, a government spokesman said today.
Teerat Ratanasevi announced the measures following today’s meeting between economic ministers and concerned agencies to monitor the economic situation.
The meeting approved six measures to regulate commodity prices, the spokesman said.
The Agriculture Ministry was assigned to control production costs, particularly raw materials for food production including maize, soybeans and chemical fertiliser, as it could help reduce goods prices.
The logistic system must be efficiently managed, while more distribution centres will be set up under the supervision of the commerce and the agricultural ministries.
The government spokesman said the zoning of economic crop cultivation will be introduced to farmers, adding that the three ministries — finance, commerce and agriculture — will join hands to prevent monopolies in sales of raw materials and encourage new merchants in the markets.
Regarding measures to reduce impact on the citizen following the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) price hike, Mr Teerat said the public will be encouraged to use natural gas vehicles (NGV) instead and more gas stations will be provided.
The last measure, he said, involves the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Thailand, and the National Economic and Social Development Board which have been assigned to monitor the global economy in the second half of the year after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut the world economic growth from 3.2 per cent to 3.1 per cent and the United states announced its plan to begin cutting its use of quantitative easing later this year.
Deputy Prime Minister/Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan said the meetings will be held again in the next few weeks to conclude measures to handle the slowdown of public consumption and to control commodity prices at an appropriate level.
