MAS may 'tighten aggressively' as response to 7-year high inflation: Maybank

The double-tightening move is expected in April.

A report by Maybank revealed that the Monetary Association of Singapore (MAS) is expected to "tighten aggressively" after the core inflation reached a seven-year high.

Aside from the double tightening move expected in April 2022 forecast ranges for headline inflation and core inflation are expected to settle between 2% to 3% and 1.5% to 2.5%, respectively.

A 2% goods and services tax hike is also expected in the upcoming budget 2022, which, according to Maybank, could result in an increase to headline inflation by around 1.3 percentage points.

Core inflation climbed at the fastest pace since July 2014. This was due to a steeper increase in airfares with the added cost of mandatory COVID tests. The value increased to 2.1% in December, whilst headline inflation also inched up to 4% in the same month.

Month-on-month, the core consumer price index (CPI) was up by 0.6%, whilst headline CPI also grew by 0.5%.