Singapore's CPI inflation eased to 0.6% in 2017

But private road transport inflation highly affected the decrease in CPI in Q42017.

MAS reported that Singapore’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased to 0.6% in 2017, after two consecutive years of negative inflation.

MAS Core Inflation increased from 0.9% to 1.5% YoY in 2017.

However, CPI-All Items inflation fell from 0.6% in November to 0.4% in December, whilst MAS Core Inflation decreased from 1.5% to 1.3%. The decline was largely due to lower private road transport and services inflation, MAS said.

Here’s more from MAS:

Private road transport inflation slowed to 2.6% in December from 4.1% the month before. This was mainly due to the dissipation of base effects associated with the increase in parking fees in December 2016, as well as a smaller year-ago increase in petrol prices.

Services inflation fell to 1.3% in December from 1.6% in November, largely reflecting a decline in airfares and holiday expenses, in addition to a smaller year-ago increase in telecommunication services fees.

Food inflation dipped to 1.4% in December from 1.5% in the preceding month, as a smaller increase in the prices of non-cooked food items more than offset slightly higher food services inflation.

The cost of accommodation fell by 3.8% in December, moderating from the 3.9% decline in the previous month, as the fall in housing rentals eased.