SINGAPORE, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 0.6 percent in July, the same pace of growth as in the previous month, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a joint release on Thursday.
The MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, grew to 1.9 percent in July from 1.7 percent in the previous month.
The authorities attribute the larger CPI inflation to the fact that a decline in private road transport costs and lower services inflation offset a larger increase in the cost of electricity and gas. They also said the MAS Core Inflation kept going up in July, driven by a larger increase in the cost of electricity and gas.
In a breakdown, Singapore's cost of electricity and gas registered a steeper 12.7 percent growth in July, compared to the 3.7 percent increase in June; services inflation moderated to 1.5 percent from 1.7 percent; food inflation was unchanged at 1.5 percent; private road transport cost fell by 0.2 percent year on year, compared to the 0.4 percent increase in June; and the accommodation cost fell by three percent, the same pace of decrease in the previous month.
Looking forward, Singapore is likely to see mild increase of imported inflation, while the domestic sources of inflation are expected to increase alongside a faster pace of wage growth and a pickup in domestic demand.
According to the joint release, Singapore's CPI inflation is expected to be at the upper half of the 01 percent forecast range this year. The MAS core inflation is expected to rise gradually over the course of 2018 to come in at the upper half of the 1-2 percent forecast range.
