BANGKOK - Thailand’s headline consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.83 per cent in December from a year earlier, the Commerce Ministry said on Jan 5, making it the eighth straight month that it was outside the central bank’s target of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

The drop in December compared with a 0.44 per cent year-on-year drop in November, and was the lowest in 34 months. It was also the third consecutive month the index declined.

The figure compared with a fall of 0.3 per cent in December forecast in a Reuters poll.

The core CPI was up 0.58 per cent year on year in December, versus a forecast rise of 0.6 per cent.

For 2023, inflation was at 1.23 per cent, with the forecast for 2024 to be between minus 0.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent, the ministry said.

“The inflation trend continues to be low and there is a chance January’s numbers will be negative,” Trade Policy and Strategy Office director-general Poonpong Naiyanapakorn told a press conference, adding that the economy was still expanding and prices were not deflationary.

The central bank in 2023 maintained its inflation target of 1 per cent to 3 per cent for 2024. REUTERS