Singapore’s core inflation rose slightly to 3.3 per cent year-on-year in December last year, official data showed on Tuesday (Jan 23).
It edged up from 3.2 per cent year-on-year in November due to higher services inflation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said.
Core inflation, which excludes accommodation and private transport costs, had risen to 5.5 per cent in January and February last year, a 14-year high, before trending downwards. It fell to 3 per cent in September, the lowest since March 2022.
For the whole of 2023, core inflation averaged 4.2 percent, higher than 4.1 percent in 2022.
Meanwhile, the headline consumer price index, or overall inflation, was 3.7 percent in December, higher than 3.6 per cent in November.
This reflected a faster pace of increase in private transport costs, alongside the pickup in services inflation, said MAS and MTI.
Overall inflation came in at 4.8 percent, down from 6.1 percent the previous year.
Inflation rates in 2023 were impacted by the increase in the GST rate to 8 per cent, the authorities said.
