Singapore's Consumer Prices Rise at Faster-Than-Expected Pace in December

By Ronnie Harui

SINGAPORE--Singapore's consumer prices rose at a faster-than-expected pace in December, mainly owing to the pick-up in core inflation and higher prices of accommodation.

The consumer-price index in December climbed 4.0% from a year earlier, the Department of Statistics said Monday. The reading was the highest since February 2013, when the CPI rose 4.9%, and compared with the median estimate for a 3.7% rise in a Wall Street Journal survey of nine economists. The city-state's CPI rose 3.8% on year in November.

The cost of transportation, which has an index weighting of 17.07%, climbed 13.7% on year in December. Food prices, which have a 21.10% weighting, rose 2.1%, while housing and utilities costs, which make up 24.84% of the index, rose 3.4%, the data showed.

Core CPI, which strips out private road transport and accommodation costs, rose 2.1% in December from a year earlier, following the 1.6% increase in November. The median estimate in the WSJ survey was for a 1.7% on-year rise in December.

For 2021 as a whole, Singapore's consumer prices climbed 2.3% after a 0.2% decline in 2020, while core consumer prices rose 0.9%, following a 0.2% drop in 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a joint statement.

Given the recent stronger-than-projected inflation readings, including the sharp uptick in airfares, MAS and MTI are reviewing the current forecast ranges for headline inflation and core inflation in 2022, they said.

Write to Ronnie Harui at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-24-22 0041ET