Singapore's CPI inflation rate hits nine-month low

The core inflation rate of Singapore eased to a nine-month low in February, reinforcing expectations that the central bank will keep monetary policy unchanged when it meets next month.

The core inflation rate was 1.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis, data showed on Monday, its lowest since May 2018, and below the median forecast in a Reuters poll for a 1.7 per cent rise.

The MAS tightened policy at each of its semi-annual meetings in 2018, the first tightening in six years. Its meeting next month comes against the backdrop of a raft of underwhelming domestic data and concerns over the health of the global economy.

The core inflation measure - closely watched by central bankers - excludes changes in the prices of cars and accommodation, which are more heavily influenced by government policies, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s headline consumer price index edged up 0.5 per cent in February from a year earlier, due to more gradual declines in private road transport and accommodation costs.

The median forecast in the poll was for all-items CPI to rise 0.5 per cent. In January, headline CPI rose 0.4 per cent year-on-year.

Singapore will release February industrial production data on Tuesday. Factory output shrank to its lowest in two-and-a-half years in January.