FILE PHOTO: People shop at a pop-up store in Singapore April 24, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s core consumer price index (CPI) rose at its fastest pace in nearly four years in July in year-on-year terms, due to higher electricity and gas costs, data showed on Thursday.
Core CPI in July rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier, faster than the 1.7 percent rise in June. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was also for a 1.7 percent rise.
This is the highest since August 2014, when core inflation rose 2.0 percent from the year earlier.
“This reflects an upward revision in electricity tariffs in July following the pickup in global oil prices in the preceding quarter,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement.
The cost of electricity and gas surged 12.7 percent in July from the year earlier. In June, it rose 3.7 percent.
Singapore’s headline CPI, however, rose 0.6 percent in July from a year earlier, in line with June’s increase and slightly lower than the median forecast in a Reuters poll which called for a 0.7 percent rise.
(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Sam Holmes)
