| Associated
Press July 24, 2006 SINGAPORE SINGAPORE'S consumer prices rose at a slightly faster-than-expected pace of 1.4 percent in June, as lower transportation costs partially offset rising prices of food, the Department of Statistics said in a statement Monday, Jul 24. The increase was just above the 1.3 percent projected on average by eight economists in a Dow Jones Newswires poll. The index was down 0.1 percent from May 2006 in seasonally adjusted terms after staying unchanged in May from April. The poll projected the CPI to decline 0.3 percent in June from May. The cost of transport and communications, which accounts for 22 percent of the inflation index, fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier in June and declined 1.0 percent from May due to lower car prices. Prices of food, which is the biggest component in the index with a 23 percent weighting, climbed 1.8 percent from a year earlier and 0.2 percent from May because of rising costs of fresh fish and soft drinks. Housing costs, which make up 21 percent of the index, gained 4.7 percent from a year earlier, but fell 1.7 percent from May. Health care costs gained 1.0 percent on-year, while remaining stable from May. In the first six months of this year, inflation rose 1.3 percent from a year earlier. |
||||