Singapore's core inflation holds steady at 0.6% in June, lower than forecasts
The June figure was lower than private-sector economists' median forecast of 0.7 per cent, according to a poll by Bloomberg.
DBS economist Chua Han Teng expects the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to adopt a 'wait and see approach' for the upcoming monetary policy meeting on Jul 30. This keeps the door open for a third easing in October, following the slight reductions of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate policy band slope in January and April.
Headline inflation also held steady from a month ago at 0.8 per cent, but was lower than the survey's median estimate of 0.9 per cent.
On a month-on-month basis, both core and headline inflation fell by 0.1 per cent.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry and MAS stuck to their full-year core inflation forecast of 0.5 to 1.5 per cent for 2025.
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Key CPI categories
In June, the majority of consumer price index (CPI) categories experienced easing prices, except for private transport, as well as retail and other goods.
Electricity and gas inflation fell further to 3.9 per cent, from a fall of 3.7 per cent, due to a larger decline in electricity prices.
Food inflation eased slightly to 1 per cent, from 1.1 per cent previously, as the prices of food services and non-cooked food rose at a slower pace.
Meanwhile, accommodation prices dipped to 1 per cent, from 1.1 per cent, due to a smaller increase in housing rents.
Services inflation dropped to 0.7 per cent, from 1.1 per cent, due to a steeper decline in holiday expenses, airfares and the cost of information and communication services.
In contrast, retail and other goods prices remained flat compared to a year ago, picking up pace from a fall of 1 per cent the previous month.
Private transport prices also accelerated to 2 per cent, from 1.1 per cent the previous month, due to a steeper rise in car prices and slower pace of decline in petrol prices.
Separately, data from Singstat also showed that headline CPI for general households rose by 0.9 per cent on the year for the first half of 2025, slower than the 1.8 per cent increase recorded in the second half of 2024.
By household income group, headline inflation for the lowest 20 per cent, middle 60 per cent and highest 20 per cent income groups came in at 0.8 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively. This was lower than all the respective rates in the second half of last year.
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