The consumer price index rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier, after climbing 3.6 percent in November, the Department of Statistics said in a statement today. The median estimate of 18 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 3.8 percent increase. Price gains averaged 4.6 percent in 2012, the government said.
Inflation has remained elevated even after the Monetary Authority of Singapore tightened monetary policy last year by allowing its currency to appreciate, as private property prices reached a record and the cost of owning a vehicle surged. The central bank forecasts price gains will be in a 3.5 percent-to- 4.5 percent range in 2013.
“Domestic inflationary pressure is still exceptionally high,” Irvin Seah, a Singapore-based economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd., said before the report. Full story
