Singapore households expect inflation to ease further over the next one year, on the back of the government’s property cooling measures as well as expectations that car prices will stabilise, showed a survey conducted by Singapore Management University (SMU) and reported in the media.
Notably, the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx) for the next one year declined from 3.8 percent in December 2013 to 3.74 percent in June, or the lowest reading since SMU began the survey in September 2011.
Moreover, the composite five-year-ahead Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx5) moderately dipped from 4.56 percent in December 2013 to 4.51 percent in June – also its lowest since the series began.
Source: Singapore Management University
Assistant Professor Aurobindo Ghosh, Co-creator and Director of the SInDEx Project at SMU’s Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI), said, “Property prices in Singapore have reacted to curbs in debt servicing ratios, and slight temporary increase in vehicle quota have dampened car prices. We see this reflected in the moderation of overall inflation expectations.”
However, he noted that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently “projected that there is an upward pressure on the Singapore core inflation without accommodation and private transportation, possibly from the tight labour market and other pass-through costs.”
Originally developed by SKBI in partnership with MasterCard, the SInDEx is based on an online survey of about 400 randomly selected individuals who represent a cross-section of Singapore households.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons/ User: Merlion444
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
Related Stories:
Singapore’s GDP shrinks in Q2 2014
Singapore tops transparency scorecard in Southeast Asia