BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's headline consumer price index (CPI) came in at -0.44% in November from a year earlier, the second consecutive month and lowest in nearly three years, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.

The figure compared with a 0.31% year-on-year drop in the previous month and against a forecast for -0.30% inflation in November in a Reuters poll.

Government energy policies have lowered prices for diesel, while pork and chicken meat prices also declined, the ministry said.

It was the seventh successive monthly headline inflation that was below the central bank's target range of 1% to 3%.

Core CPI was at 0.58% year-on-year in November, versus a forecast of 0.60%.

In the January-November period, the headline CPI rose an average 1.41% year-on-year, with the core CPI up 1.33%.

Headline inflation next year is seen in the range of -0.3% to 1.7%, due to measures to reduce costs of living, head of the ministry's trade policy and strategy office Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, told reporters.

"There won't be deflation because prices came down due to government measures, but product prices and the economy continued to grow," he said.