Thailand’s Consumer Prices Fall for 11th Straight Month

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BANGKOK – The Commerce Ministry said Tuesday, Thailand’s consumer prices fell for the 11th straight month in November and are unlikely to reverse course this year.

The Thai headline consumer price index fell 0.97% from a year ago, accelerating from the 0.77% drop in October, the ministry’s monthly report showed. On a month-over-month basis, the November headline CPI edged down 0.32%.

The latest CPI readings show a steeper drop than the median forecast of an on-year fall of 0.71% and an on-month slip of 0.09% by a Wall Street Journal poll of economists.

Somkiat Triratpan, director of the ministry’s trade and strategy bureau, said that continued price falls were due to lower retail fuel and fresh food item prices.

From January to November, Thailand’s headline CPI slid 0.9% from last year.

Thailand’s core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.88% year-over-year and 0.05% month-over-month in November. The poll had forecast core CPI to have risen 0.9% from a year ago and 0.055% from a month ago in November.

During the first 11 months of 2015, the country’s core CPI rose 1.09% on-year.

By Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol