Inflation falls despite minimum wage rise

ECONOMY

Inflation falls despite minimum wage rise

Published: 2 Feb 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Business

Inflation in January eased from a 13-month high in December, indicating last month's nationwide minimum wage rise has made only a limited impact.

Commerce Ministry figures show annual headline inflation was 3.39% year-on-year last month, down from December's 3.63%, which was the highest since November 2011.

The ministry last month started using 2011 instead of 2007 as the base year for calculating inflation.

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boons
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Discussion 8 : 03 Feb 2013 at 17.168
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pquinian - And when unemployment spikes, what then? Will it then be the job of all companies to chip in and pay for the unemployed via taxes?

See, this is what happens in the West: First minimum wage laws directly affect unemployment by making it harder to hire people. Then government is called upon to solve unemployment, and a social welfare system is put in place -- which is effectively the same as getting companies to not only pay higher wages, but to also pay for the unemployed via taxation. Then the welfare class grows swiftly. The net effect is always the same: Reduced competitiveness.

There's no free lunch in economics.
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phetpeter
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Discussion 7 : 03 Feb 2013 at 15.577
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Wrong inflation eased because people stopped buying leaving goods on the shelf! Now companies have had to take a hit on price rises. and places like Tesco and Big C, are slashing prices to move fresh and food stock. But it will increase, once people think they will still get a deal..(Tesco have LED 17ins TV offered 3 weeks ago..price 27XXbaht. This week special offer was 3xxx price reduced to 27XXbaht!) You can fool a Thai everytime!
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bkkdave
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Discussion 6 : 03 Feb 2013 at 10.346
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Devalue the baht ..quckly!!
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pquinlan
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Discussion 5 : 03 Feb 2013 at 09.465
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C'mon guys. One of the key complaints by opponents of paying a living wage was that inflation would run out of control. Now we are getting rationalisation of why inflation isn't running out of control.

Frankly, even if it caused inflation, I was and remain a supporter of paying a decent wage. Any company that cannot pay a decent living wage to its employees has a faulty business model and doesn't deserve to be in business - period. I also support trying to find ways to extend it to the nearly 25 million "informal economy" workers who haven't received any increase at all, though this is a far, far harder nut to crack.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 4 : 02 Feb 2013 at 21.354
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Inflation is inflation. An increase of 3.39% is still an increase.
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bluebottle
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Discussion 3 : 02 Feb 2013 at 13.253
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Who caused the increase in the price of Rice?It would be more pertinent to show each products influence on inflation and not just as a whole.
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spiceman
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Discussion 2 : 02 Feb 2013 at 04.342
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The reason is so many people have lost their jobs, falling victims of the wage hike. So, if the Govt. wants to lower the inflation even more, just do another wage hike, OK?
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boons
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Discussion 1 : 02 Feb 2013 at 03.251
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Because there was an expectation that the inflationary effect would filter through the economy in just ... 30 days?!

Is this a joke? In other news the employment rate didn't change much either in 4 weeks.

Dear employers of these cheap, politicized statisticians: Will you please give your staff a break? They are clearly overworked.
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Inflation falls despite minimum wage rise | Bangkok Post: business