Singapore CPI rises 0.2pc in Mar

SINGAPORE, Apr 23 (Xinhua): Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2 per cent in March, compared to a 0.5-per cent inflation in February, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a joint release on Monday.

The MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, decreased to 1.5 per cent in March from 1.7 per cent in the previous month.

The authorities attribute the smaller CPI inflation mainly to a smaller increase in the prices of services and a fall in private road transport cost.

They add that the MAS Core Inflation decrease reflected lower services inflation.

In a breakdown, Singapore's food inflation dipped to 1.4 per cent in March from 1.5 per cent in February; private road transport cost declined 0.6 per cent in March, reversing the 0.6 per cent growth in February; accommodation costs fell by 3.4 per cent, moderating slightly from the 3.6 per cent drop in the previous month; and services inflation dropped to 1.4 per cent from 1.9 per cent.

Looking forward, Singapore is likely to see mild increase of imported inflation as global demand improves amid ample supply in key commodity markets, said the two authorities.

They forecast that the global oil prices would ease in the quarters ahead as supply remains responsive, despite of the sporadic spikes in the first quarter.