Singapore's deflation extends to seventh month in core gauge

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's main price gauge contracted for the seventh consecutive month in August, data showed on Wednesday, with prices falling 0.3% from a year earlier.

Core inflation - the central bank's favoured price measure - was expected to fall 0.4% based on eight economists' forecasts. The gauge had fallen 0.4% in July after entering negative territory in February for the first time in a decade.

Singapore's headline consumer price index was down 0.4% from a year earlier, unchanged from the prior month, data from the trade ministry and the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed. Economists had forecast a 0.5% drop.

Authorities in the city-state, battling its deepest ever recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, expect core and headline inflation to average between -1% and 0% in 2020.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)