Inflation for Singapore households dips 0.7% in 2H15

On back of lower accommodation, electricity costs.

CPI-All items for Singapore households fell 0.7% in 2H15, compared with the same period a year ago, according to a report by the Department of Statistics Singapore.

The report noted that the fall is larger than the 0.4% pullback in the first half of 2015. Excluding imputed rentals on owner-occupied accommodation (OOA) of 2015, the CPI remained unchanged after seeing a marginal increase of 0.2% in 1H15.

Inflation for general households in H2 for the lowest 20%, middle 60%, and highest 20% income groups fell by 1.4% 0.5% and 0.8% respectively. Across all income groups, the main items responsible for the decline were lower accommodation costs and electricity tariffs.

Compared to the middle 60%, the lowest 20% and highest 20% income group saw larger declines in their respective CPI-All items. For the lowest 20% income group, this is due largely to lower accommodation and healthcare services costs. Meanwhile, compared to the middle 60%, the highest 20% income group saw sharper CPI-All items decline on back of the pullback in car prices.

The same factors contributed to growth rates of CPI excluding imputed rentals on OOA. The lowest 20% and highest 20% income groups’ rates dipped 0.7% and 0.3% respectively, while the middle 60% saw a marginal growth of 0.2%.

For the whole of 2015, CPI-All items for general households dipped 0.5%, the first decline since 2002. The CPI excluding imputed rentals on OOA edged up by 0.1% in 2015, lower than the 1.2% growth in 2014.