Singapore Inflation At 7-Month Low

(RTTNews) - Singapore's inflation eased to its lowest level in seven months, mainly due to a sharp fall in private road transportation costs, figures from the Statistics Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed on Monday.

The consumer price inflation eased to 0.3 percent from 0.7 percent in each of the previous three months. The latest figure was the lowest since April, when prices edged up 0.1 percent.

Private road transport costs fell by 3.6 percent year-on-year in November, steeper than the 0.6 percent decline in October, due to lower car prices and smaller rise in petrol prices. Accommodation costs fell by 2.1 percent annually in November, less than the 2.5 percent decline in the previous month.

MAS core inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, eased to 1.7 percent in November, from 1.9 percent in October, due to lower services, retail and electricity & gas inflation.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 2.0 percent after 0.3 percent fall in October. Meanwhile, MAS core inflation slowed to minus 0.1 percent from 0.2 percent.