SECTORS<\/p>\n
Official data released on Monday showed that services inflation rose to 1.8 per cent in October from 0.3 per cent the month before.<\/p>\n
This was due to a faster pace of increase in health insurance costs, as well as a rise in healthcare services costs and holiday expenses, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).<\/p>\n
Electricity and gas inflation fell less steeply because of a smaller decline in electricity prices.<\/p>\n
Food inflation increased marginally to 1.2 per cent in October on the back of a faster increase in non-cooked food prices.<\/p>\n
Retail and other goods inflation ticked up from 0.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent on account of a rise in the prices of clothing and footwear and personal effects.<\/p>\n
Private transport inflation came in at 3.8 per cent, up from from 3.7 per cent in September, due to a steeper increase in car prices, while accommodation inflation fell slightly from 0.4 per cent to 0.3 per cent due to a slower pace of increase in housing rents.<\/p>\n
INFLATION “BOTTOMED” IN THIRD QUARTER<\/p>\n
The unexpectedly larger jump in October shows that “inflation has likely bottomed”, OCBC head of global markets research and strategy Selina Ling said.<\/p>\n
“The recent inflation data underscores why MAS paused its easing monetary policy cycle in July<\/a> and October 2025<\/a> and is likely to continue to be on hold for the upcoming January 2026 monetary policy statement,” Ms Ling told CNA.<\/p>\n “The MAS statement still points to a decline in imported costs, albeit at a slower pace.”<\/p>\n Ms Ling also noted that regional inflation is tipped to pick up modestly and that crude oil prices should see a more modest downside in 2026 as compared to 2025.<\/p>\n DBS senior economist Chua Han Teng noted that with both headline and core inflation below 2 per cent, they remain “contained and consistent with domestic price stability”.<\/p>\n “Singapore\u2019s inflation showed clearer indications that it bottomed in 3Q25, aligning with the MAS\u2019 expectations,” said Mr Chua.<\/p>\n “This trough in core inflation coincided with stronger-than-expected economic growth compared to advance estimates for the same quarter.”<\/p>\n The economic conditions support MAS’ decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged in October, Mr Chua said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The central bank’s current policy settings appear consistent with a narrower 0 per cent output gap and higher core inflation of 0.5 to 1.5 per cent in 2026.<\/p>\n “We expect the MAS to keep the powder dry in 2026, maintaining its three policy parameters, safeguarding flexibility in an uncertain global environment,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SECTORS Official data released on Monday showed that services inflation rose to 1.8 per cent in October from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":401006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,266,93091,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-401005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-inflation","11":"tag-singapore-economy","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115603931383559568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}