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Singapore's Consumer Prices in May falls to minus 0.4 pct

Xinhua, June 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore's Consumer Prices Index-All Items Inflation for May came in at minus 0.4 percent, slightly higher than minus 0.5 percent in April, on account of higher cost of private road transport, said Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Tuesday.

Private road transport cost increase 1 percent in May after a 2. 1 percent fall in April. The rising cost is due to higher Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums and a smaller correction in petrol pump prices. Meanwhile, accommodation costs fell by 2.5 percent in May because of the soft housing rental market, MTI said.

Services inflation eased to 0.5 percent, from April's figure of 1.1 percent, which is mainly due to budgetary measures including the reduction in the concessionary foreign domestic worker levy and the waiver of national examination fees, as well as a smaller increase in telecommunication services fees.

The ministry added that food inflation was down to 1.8 percent from 2.1 percent in April, because slowly increased non-cooked food prices more than offset the sharper price increase for restaurant meals.

MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, came in at 0.1 percent, compared to 0. 4 percent in the previous month. This mainly reflected the impact of budgetary measures on services costs, as well as softer food inflation. Endi