FILE PHOTO: Migrant workers from Bangladesh and India wearing protective masks do grocery shopping before tighter measures are implemented to curb the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Little India, in Singapore, April 5, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s main price gauge contracted for a second consecutive month in March, data showed on Thursday, with prices falling 0.2% from a year earlier.

Core inflation - the central bank’s favoured price measure - was expected to fall 0.4% based on five economists’ forecasts. The gauge entered negative territory in February for the first time in a decade.

Singapore’s headline consumer price index was flat at 0% from a year earlier, the lowest level since January 2018, versus expectations for 0.25% drop.

Authorities have said they expect core and headline inflation to average between ‐1% and 0% in 2020.