According to the latest figures, the country’s consumer
price index (CPI ) climbed 5.2 percent in
March, beating February’s 4.6 percent increase and exceeding the estimates of
11 economists surveyed by Reuters.
“Singapore
is in danger of losing its low inflation status,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde,
an economist at Credit Suisse.
“The current episode is the second major inflation shock Singapore
has experienced in the last four years; but what makes this time different from
2008 is that inflation in most other Asian countries remains well contained.”
In a joint statement, the MAS
and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI )
said that headline inflation could “average around five percent year-on-year in
the first half before easing gradually in the second half of 2012”.
They noted that housing would remain the biggest factor for
inflation this year, as rental contracts were renewed at “considerably higher”
levels, particularly for HDB flats.
Info courtesy-
PropertyGuru.com.sg
