Chart of the day: Transport costs dipped 4% YoY in April

It is considered as one of the main factors that dragged consumer prices over the period.

This chart from UOB shows the factors that dragged consumer prices in April. Overall transport costs dipped by 4.0% YoY in April attributed to lower oil prices with petrol costs falling by 8.2% YoY in the same month. Consequently, private road transport costs had declined by 5.5% YoY, the deepest contraction in almost four years.

Across other clusters, inflation remained benign especially in the consumer discretionary goods and services, such as clothing and footwear with a decline of 3.2% YoY, recreation and culture which slid 2.8% YoY, communications which edged down 0.6% YoY, and miscellaneous goods and services with a 0.9% YoY contraction. Meanwhile, the food cluster increased 2.1% YoY.

The slowdown in consumer demand and lower commodity prices were the key factors that pressured inflation lower.

UOB further notes that the upward pressure on imported food prices may be seen in the months ahead as supply chain disruptions could invariably lift import prices.