Thailand's headline consumer price index (CPI) jumped more than expected by 5.28% in February from a year earlier, driven by higher energy prices, the Commerce Ministry said on Friday.
That compared with a forecast for a rise of 4.05% in a Reuters poll and followed January's 3.23% increase.
The core CPI index was up 1.80% from a year earlier, also beating a forecast for a 0.62% rise.
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On Thursday, Bank of Thailand's assistant governor Chantavarn Sucharitakul said that inflation is less of a threat for Asia than for advanced economies due to slow wage growth and households' high debt that prevent them from piling into the housing market.
"Wage is not the source, housing is probably not," Ms Chantavarn said, on what could trigger higher inflation in Asean economies.
"Supply disruption is not going to add much to the inflation story" either, as manufacturers in the region produce components of goods rather than their own brands, she said in an online seminar.
