Singapore's core inflation, the central bank's preferred gauge of consumer prices, held steady in May, defying market expectations for an uptick as a slowdown in service costs helped temper broader price pressures.
Core inflation, which excludes accommodation and private transport costs to better reflect everyday household expenses, remained unchanged from April at 1.4%, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reported on Tuesday.
The reading landed below the 1.6% median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.
Headline inflation, measured by the all-items consumer price index, also matched April's pace at 1.8% year over year, coming in under the 2% consensus forecast compiled by Investing.com and Bloomberg.
Services inflation slowed to 1.3% in May from 1.5% in April, driven primarily by a sharp decline in telecommunication service fees.
Retail and other goods inflation inched up to 1.6% in May from 1.5% in April with an acceleration in the prices of personal care appliances and information and communications equipment.
Food prices surged 1.8% from a 1.6% increase in April, fueled by rising prices for non-cooked food and food services.
Accommodation prices edged up to a 0.5% rise in May from 0.4% a month earlier as housing rents increased.
Electricity and gas prices fell 3%, unchanged from April, in step with the decline in the World Bank's energy price index by 8.7% and the 10.7% fall in Brent crude prices.
Private transport prices surged to an 8.6% increase from 8.1% in the previous month, driven by higher car and motorcycle prices, the central bank said.
Despite some easing in May, global energy prices still stayed high, and have driven production and transport costs for Singapore's imports, the MAS said.
Meanwhile, service labor costs are forecast to increase slowly in 2026 on an easing in nominal wage growth, MAS said.
For 2026, core and all-price inflation are seen to average between 1.5% and 2.5%.
