Singapore's headline inflation rate rises 0.6% in July

Retail and water prices caused inflation to rise.

Singapore’s July headline inflation rate inched up to register 0.6% YoY in July, from 0.5% YoY in June.

According to the Department of Statistics Singapore, core inflation rose by 1.6% YoY.

UOB said the reason for the slightly higher headline inflation was mainly due to the 1.2% YoY increase in retail and water prices, reversing the 0.2% decline last month.

UOB said, "The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) continues to expect core inflation to average 1-2% (from 0.9% in 2016), whilst headline inflation to average 0.5-1.5% in 2017 (from -0.5% in 2016). We maintain our 2017 core inflation forecast of 1.3%, whilst expect headline inflation to average 0.5% in 2017."