Singapore’s Raffles Place at lunchtime.
Roslan Rahman | Afp | Getty Images
Singapore’s inflation in March stayed at over four-year lows, with the city-state’s consumer price index climbing 0.9%, year on year.
Singapore’s monetary authority said increases in the costs of food and private transport in March mainly contributed to the headline inflation.
March inflation was lower than Reuters poll expectations of 1.1%, and the same as the 0.9% seen in February. On a month-on-month basis, CPI declined 0.1% in March.
Core inflation — which strips out prices of private transport and accommodation — slowed to 0.5% from February’s reading of 0.6%. This was due to lower inflation across the broad core CPI categories, barring food.
The inflation reading comes as Singapore gears up for a general election on May 3, with campaigning starting Wednesday as candidates filed their nomination papers.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in a video Tuesday that cost-of-living pressures were “a real concern” for Singapore. “It’s because of wars in Europe and the Middle East, because of global supply chain disruptions, and now because of tariffs and trade wars,” Wong said.
Singapore eased its monetary policy for the second straight time earlier in April, as the city-state sees zero growth this year as a possibility after posting a lower-than-expected GDP expansion of 3.8% for the first quarter. The latest reading allows more room for the country to ease policy and boost growth.
Singapore’s year-on-year quarterly GDP growth missed expectations of 4.3% from economists polled by Reuters, and was lower than the 5% expansion seen in the last quarter of 2024.
The country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry downgraded its GDP forecast to 0%-2% for 2025, down from its previous outlook of 1%-3% — MAS also projected GDP growth of 0%-2% for 2025.
In a release, MTI said the growth slowdown was due to declines in manufacturing, as well as some services sectors such as finance and insurance.
