SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent in August, compared to the 0.6 percent of CPI-All Items inflation in July, said Ministry of Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a joint release on Monday. The inflation change largely reflected a fall in private road transport inflation, and to a lesser extent, a moderation in food and retail inflation, which collectively more than offset the smaller decline in the cost of accommodation. The joint release said that Singapore’s private road transport inflation was 2.6 percent in August, compared to 3.5 percent in July. This was due to a dissipation of the base effect associated with the expiry of the one-year road tax rebates in August 2016, which outweighed the combined impact of a steeper increase in petrol prices and a smaller decline in car prices. Singapore saw its food inflation lowered from 1.4 percent in July to 1.2 percent in August, due to smaller increases in the prices of both non-cooked food and prepared meals. The country’s cost of retail and other goods, including water, rose 0.9 percent in August, as against 1.2 percent in July. That is because of more modest increases in clothing and footwear prices, according to the two authorities.
Singapore’s services inflation reached 1.4 percent in August, basically equalling with that for the previous month, as the rise in holiday expenses was offset by smaller increases in the costs of medical and dental treatment as well as education services. The decrease in Singapore’s cost of accommodation was narrowed to 3.9 percent in August from 4.1 percent in July, due to a larger increase in the cost of housing maintenance and repairs on a year-ago basis.
Singapore’s MAS Core Inflation, excluding the cost of accommodation and private road transport, edged down to 1.4 percent in August from 1.6 percent in July, due to lower food and retail inflation. The authorities forecast Singapore’s MAS Core Inflation is expected to average 1 to 2 percent for the whole year of 2017, compared with 0.9 percent in 2016, while CPI-All Items inflation is projected to rise to 0.5-1.5 percent from -0.5 percent last year. They attribute the projected pickup in inflation to the positive contribution of energy-related components and the impact of administrative price increases, rather than generalized demand-induced price pressures.
