Thailand's headline consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.83% in December from a year earlier, the commerce ministry said on Friday, making it the eighth straight month that it was outside the central bank's target of 1% to 3%.

The drop in December compared to a 0.44% 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% in December forecast in a Reuters poll. Core CPI was up 0.58% year-on-year in December, versus a forecast rise of 0.60%.

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

"Inflation trend continues to be low and there is chance January's numbers will be negative," Trade Police and Strategy Office Director-General Poonpong Naiyanapakorn told a press conference, adding the economy was still expanding and prices were not deflationary.

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

 

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon, Satawasin Staporncharnchai and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)