Singapore's deflation extends to eighth month in core gauge

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's main price gauge contracted for the eighth consecutive month in September, data showed on Friday, with prices falling 0.1% from a year earlier.

Core inflation -- the central bank's favoured price measure -- was expected to fall 0.2%, according to a Reuters poll.

Singapore's headline consumer price index was flat from a year earlier, data from the Department of Statistics showed. Economists had forecast a 0.25% drop.

Authorities in the city-state, battling its deepest ever recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, expect core and headline inflation to come in between -0.5 and 0% in 2020.

(Reporting by Chen Lin; editing by Uttaresh.V)