April 25, 2016

In March, consumer prices did not change compared to the previous month following the 0.1% decrease tallied in February. According to Statistics Singapore, a fall in prices for food and housing and utilities offset price increases in all other categories.



Consumer prices fell 1.0% annually in March, which was a more pronounced drop than February’s 0.6% fall and marked the lowest reading since April 2002. The reading overshot market expectations of a slightly-stronger 1.1% decrease. The annual average variation in consumer prices was minus 0.7%, which was down from February’s minus 0.6% and marked a multi-year low.



The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) core inflation measure, which excludes the cost of accommodation and private road transport, inched up from 0.5% in February to 0.6% in March.

The MAS expects average annual variation in consumer prices to be between minus 1.0% and 0.0% in 2016. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect prices to fall 0.1% 2016, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s estimate. For 2017, the panel sees average inflation at 1.1%.