Forecast for 2019 headline inflation trimmed as Jan reading eases to 0.4%

Singapore

THE oil price slump has led the Singapore authorities to trim their forecast for headline inflation, after January all-items prices rose by a slower-than-expected 0.4 per cent on the year before - down from 0.5 per cent in December 2018, and falling short of the 0.6 per cent estimate by private economists in a Bloomberg poll.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), citing the sharp drop in global oil prices in Q4 2018, has cut the headline inflation forecast for 2019 by half a percentage point to between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent, down from between one per cent and 2 per cent previously. But core inflation expectations were left unchanged, at between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent in a reflection of the smaller weightage given to oil-related items by that indicator.