Tuesday January 15, 2008

Singapore : Inflation rate could push past 6% in Q1 2008

This article belongs to the Singapore inflation watch story arc.

businesstimes.com.sg :

Singapore's inflation rate could soar past 6% in the current quarter, beating previous estimates, as an upward revision of the value of public housing kicks in this month and food and oil prices continue to climb. 'We were previously looking at 3.9 per cent for this year, but I think it will be much higher,' United Overseas Bank economist Ho Woei Chen said. 'The revision (of annual values) will be quite significant, and we underestimated the extent of the taxi fare increase, the food price increase, oil price increase.'

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore has raised its assessment of values across all flat types by 18-25% cent from Jan 1. Housing value has a significant weight in the consumer price index (CPI). '(Inflation for the year) can potentially exceed the Monetary Authority of Singapore's forecast of 3.5 to 4.5 per cent for 2008,' Ms Ho said.

- First they said 4%, then they said 5%, and then now they are forecasting a 6% inflation rate. And that is just referring to the official CPI figures. Many actual street prices are, of course, going up much faster and further than that.

As I have said earlier, inflation is taking off and it is going exponential. We have got gold breaking through a 28-year record high like it was a piece of paper, which incidentally is what fiat currencies are mostly made of. There is no more "Maginot Line" - we have seen resistance levels like $650, $700, $800 and finally the legendary $850 fall by the wayside.

I am starting to hear of companies which say they have not changed prices for 10, 15 years start to charge higher prices and start to pass on these price increases to consumers, because they have no other choice in this highly inflationary environment. This inflation thing is spreading like wildfire.

See also :

1. Singapore CPI inflation hits 25-year high of 4.2% in November
2. NTUC chief urges Singaporeans to be prepared to live with higher fuel, food prices

Updated :

1. Singapore CPI inflation rate for May 2008 continues at 26-year high of 7.5%
2. Singapore inflation rate hits new 26-year high of 7.5% in Apr 2008
3. Singapore CPI inflation rate hits 6.7% for Mar 2008, fastest in 26 years

(2008-01-15 19:35:30 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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