Thai inflation outside central bank’s target for eight straight months

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

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

The figure compared with a fall of 0.30 per cent in the December forecast in a Reuters poll.

Core CPI was up 0.58 per cent year on year in December, versus a forecast rise of 0.60 per cent.

For 2023, inflation was at 1.23 per cent, with the forecast for this year to be between -0.30 and 1.7 per cent, the ministry said.

“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 the economy was still expanding and prices were not deflationary.

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