Singapore's inflation up 4.9 percent in Feb, government blames COE and Lunar New Year for the surge

NZweek, 26 Mar 2013
SINGAPORE, March 25 — Singapore’s consumer price inflation (CPI) in February rose to 4.9 percent, compared with 3.6 percent for January, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry jointly announced on Monday.
In particular, the city-state’s private road transport cost rose at a higher pace of 17.4 percent in February, surging from that of 10.5 percent in January, mainly due to the spike in Certificates of Entitlement (COE) premiums in January, which was exacerbated by the low base a year ago when premiums declined.
Food inflation also registered higher year-on-year rate at 2.3 percent in February, compared with 1.0 percent in January, mainly due to the seasonal uptick in food prices during the Lunar New Year festivals. Full story