BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s annual headline inflation rate was negative for a sixth straight month in September, driven by lower energy prices, the commerce ministry said on Monday as it lowered its full year forecast to 0%.
It was also the seventh consecutive month that the inflation rate was below the central bank’s target range of 1.0% to 3.0%.
The headline consumer price index dropped 0.72% in September from a year earlier, deeper than the 0.60% decline forecast in a Reuters poll, and followed a 0.79% drop in August.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile energy and fresh food prices, rose 0.65% in September from a year earlier, compared with a forecast increase of 0.76%.
There are no signs of deflation because the core CPI was positive, the ministry said.
In the first nine months of 2025, annual headline inflation had an average decline of 0.01%, with core inflation at 0.90%, the ministry said.
In August, the central bank cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a near three-year low of 1.50%.
It will review policy on Wednesday and most economists expect a further rate reduction.
Thailand’s new government is in the middle of a programme aimed at boosting a sluggish economy hit by tariffs, political uncertainties and a soaring currency.
The commerce ministry said one of the stimulus measures – a co-payment scheme that will subsidise up to 60% of the costs of certain food and consumer goods – was unlikely to bring more inflationary pressures into the economy.
“The government’s co-payment policy will not help increase inflation much because it is short term, but it will help with consumer confidence,” said Nantapong Chiralerspong, head of the commerce ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office.
(Reporting by Orathai Sriring, Kitiphong Thaichareon, Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by David Stanway)
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