Govt’s wage, salary hike policy still unclear

BANGKOK, 24 August 2011 (NNT) – The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has indicated that more clarifications are still needed for the Government’s policy to increase the minimum wage to 300 THB and the salary for new graduates to 15,000 THB.

Speaking of the policy of the Pheu Thai-led administration to raise the minimum wage to 300 THB per day and the salary for bachelor’s degree graduates to 15,000 per month, BoT Assistant Governor for the Monetary Policy Group Paiboon Kittisrikangwan admitted that he was still uncertain whether the policy would cause inflation to go up as feared by many.

Despite the Government’s policy statement recently delivered to Parliament, the Assistant Governor noted that the wage and salary hike policy remained ambiguous. He said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would need to look into details of the policy, particularly methods of implementation, related procedures, timeframe as well as its ability to boost the national economy, before the next meeting in October.