SINGAPORE, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6 percent in 2017, reversing two consecutive years of negative inflation, said Ministry of Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, rose to 1.5 percent last year from 0.9 percent the year before.
The CPI inflation and MAS Core Inflation were 0.4 percent and 1.3 percent respectively in December 2017, comparing to 0.6 percent and 1.5 percent in November.
The authorities attribute the decline in monthly CPI inflation to the lower private road transport and services inflation, and attribute the decline in MAS Core Inflation mainly to lower services inflation.
Looking forward, Singapore is likely to see mild increase of imported inflation as global demand improves amid ample supply in key commodity markets, said the release. It forecasts that global oil prices are expected to go up only slightly in 2018 compared to 2017.
Meanwhile, global food commodity prices are also expected to rise modestly, even as localised shocks in regional supply sources could lead to transitory fluctuations in domestic food prices.
According to the release, Singapore's CPI inflation is expected to stay in the range of 0-1 percent in 2018. The MAS core inflation is likely to be in the 1-2 percent range this year.
