RPT-Thai Oct consumer prices up 0.4 pct on year

* Annual CPI up 0.4 pct, first annual rise this year

* Economists had forecast a rise of 0.6 percent

* Change due to higher food/beverage prices, job market

* Oct core CPI down 0.1 pct y/y, as expected

BANGKOK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Data from Commerce Ministry:

KEY DATA

Thai Consumer Price Index (base 2007)

Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May
Apr
Headline CPI 105.5 105.3 105.1 104.7 104.7 104.3
104.6
y/y change +0.4 -1.0 -1.0 -4.4 -4.0 -3.3
-0.9
m/m change +0.2 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.4 -0.3
1.0
Core CPI 102.7 102.6 102.5 102.5 102.5 102.3
102.9
y/y change -0.1 -0.1 -0.2 -1.2 -1.0 -0.3
1.0
m/m change +0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 -0.6
0.1
Food/Beverage
y/y change +1.6 0.9 1.4 3.2 3.8 4.2
7.0
m/m change +0.6 1.1 -0.1 -0.3 -0.4 0.1 1.2

Non Food/Beverage
y/y change -0.9 -2.7 -3.3 -9.7 -9.4 -8.6
-6.6
m/m change -0.1 -0.2 0.5 0.1 1.0 -0.5 0.7

CONTEXT

* The Bank of Thailand has left its key policy rate
unchanged at a record low 1.25 percent since April after cuts
totalling 2.50 percentage points between December and April to
help revive the economy. [ID:nBKK489548].

* Most analysts say the central bank is likely to keep the
rate steady until around the second quarter of next year. It is
likely to start raising the rate then as inflation pushes
higher.

* Like central banks elsewhere in Asia, the BOT has paused
in its aggressive rate-cutting to assess the impact of earlier
cuts to help Southeast Asia's second largest economy, which
emerged from its first recession in 11 years in the second
quarter. [ID:nBKK378885].

* Annual price falls in recent months have mostly been
caused by the base effect of steep energy costs a year ago;
analysts predict retail price rises will pick up fast later
this year as that base effect wears off.

* The central bank forecast on Thursday that consumer
prices would fall between 0.5 and 1.5 percent this year before
rising between 3.5 and 5.5 percent in 2010.

LINKS

For details, see Commerce Ministry website:
here
cpig_region.html?table_name= Reuters data poll
[ID:nBKK420738]

NESDB releases Q2 GDP data [ID:nBKK378885]

BOT's new economic forecasts [ID:nBKT003120]
(Reporting by Bangkok newsroom; Editing by Alan Raybould)