SINGAPORE, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Consumer Price Index for all items (CPI-All Items) grew 0.4 percent year-on-year in October, following a 0.5-percent growth in September, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a joint statement on Monday.
The two authorities attribute the lower inflation to a steeper decline in the cost of electricity and gas and the slower services costs increase in October, even though Singapore's accommodation costs fell by a smaller amount, and food and private road transport inflation picked up.
In October, the MAS core inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, edged down from 0.7 percent in September to 0.6 percent, due to a steeper decline in the cost of electricity and gas and a slower pace of increase in services costs.
According to the statement, Singapore's private road transport inflation rose to 1 percent year-on-year in October from 0.5 percent in September. This was due to a larger increase in car prices, which outweighed a steeper fall in petrol prices.
The authorities reiterated in the statement that Singapore's CPI-All Items inflation was projected to be around 0.5 percent this year and average 0.5-1.5 percent in 2020. They forecast the MAS core inflation would come in at the lower end of the 1-2 percent range in 2019, and average 0.5-1.5 percent in 2020.
