Singapore's Consumer Prices Fell 0.4% in August

By Ronnie Harui

Singapore's consumer prices fell at the same pace in August as in July, as a steeper decline in private transport costs offset a more moderate drop in core CPI components.

The consumer-price index fell 0.4% in August from a year earlier, matching the 0.4% drop in July, the Department of Statistics said Wednesday. The median estimate in a Wall Street Journal survey of 12 economists was for a 0.5% decline.

Food prices, which have a 21.10% weighting in the index, climbed 1.8% in August, the data showed.

The cost of transportation, which has an index weighting of 17.07%, declined 1.5%. The cost of housing and utilities, which makes up 24.84% of the index, fell 0.7%.

Core CPI, which strips out private road transport and accommodation costs, fell 0.3% last month following July's 0.4% decline.

Inflation is expected to remain subdued overall, with both core CPI and headline CPI likely to average between a decline of 1.0% and 0.0% in 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a joint statement.

External sources of inflation are likely to remain benign amid weak global demand conditions, they said. In Singapore, subdued economic sentiment and weak labor-market conditions will damp consumer demand, keeping price increases for most discretionary goods and services low, they said.

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