Inflation rises to 1.4% in May

Due to the spike in cost of housing maintenance & repairs.

CPI-All Items inflation came in at 1.4% in May, up from 0.4% in April. The increase was mainly on account of the rise in the cost of housing maintenance & repairs on a year-ago basis due to base effects associated with the disbursement of the S&CC rebates.

According to a joint release by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, this caused the cost of accommodation to decline by a smaller 1.5% compared with the 6.7% fall in April.

Meanwhile, the cost of electricity and gas rose by a faster 19.1% in May compared to the 18.7% increase in the preceding month, due to a larger increase in gas tariffs on the back of the recovery in global oil prices over the past several months.

Overall food inflation picked up to 1.5% in May from 1.3% in April, driven by a larger increase in the prices of non-cooked food items. Meanwhile, the prices of prepared meals rose at a similar pace in both months.

Private road transport inflation eased to 6.1% in May from 7.0% in the previous month, on account of more moderate increases in car and petrol prices. Services inflation fell to 1.4% in May from 1.7% in the month before, mainly reflecting a decline in holiday expenses and air fares.