Singapore CPI drop biggest in five years

Largest drop: Tourists visit Singapore’s famous Merlion in front of the skyline of the city’s financial business district. The city state’s headline CPI has been falling on a year-on-year basis since November, dragged down by a slide in global oil prices in the second half of last year as well as falls in housing rents and private road transport costs. – AFP

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s consumer prices recorded their biggest year-on-year drop in five years in April, an outcome analysts said could open the way to further monetary easing if economic growth disappoints later this year.

The all-items consumer price index fell 0.5% in April from a year earlier, official data showed. That was the largest drop since late 2009 and exceeded the 0.1% drop expected by economists in a Reuters poll.