SINGAPORE, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 0.7 percent year on year in September, unchanged from that in August, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a joint release on Tuesday.
The MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, came in at 1.8 percent on a year-on-year basis, 0.1 percentage points lower than that for the previous month.
The authorities said the unchanged CPI reflected a smaller decline in accommodation costs and higher services inflation, which were offset by lower retail inflation in September.
As for the MAS Core Inflation, they attributed the slight decrease to the fact that a moderation in retail inflation more than offset higher services inflation.
Looking forward, the two authorities said Singapore's imported inflation is likely to increase on account of higher global oil and food price, and the domestic inflation will be influenced by a faster pace of wage growth in 2018 and 2019.
They forecast that the city-state will see the MAS Core Inflation rise modestly in the months ahead, and come in within the forecast range of 1.5-2 percent in 2018 and 1.5-2.5 percent in 2019.
The CPI is projected to grow by about 0.5 percent in 2018, and the inflation will rise to 1-2 percent in 2019, they added.
