Singapore's consumer prices gained for a sixth month last month as food and education costs rose.
An index of consumer prices rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier, in line with forecasts, following a 0.6 percent rise in November, the Department of Statistics said. From the previous month, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent.
Local demand may be reviving too slowly for price gains to accelerate as the city's jobless rate remains at a record 5.9 percent, analysts said. Singapore's US$89 billion economy slowed to 0.8 percent growth last year, from 2.2 percent expansion in 2002, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry's data.
Price gains may also be capped because the government asked employers to cut payouts to worker pensions by 3 percentage points from November. Less money in pension accounts, which are also used by citizens to pay mortgages, may force citizens to cut back on spending as may a planned increase in the goods and services tax from this month, economists said.
Food prices, which have the highest weighting on the index, rose 1.2 percent from a year earlier. Costs of education and stationery rose 3.1 percent and health costs rose 1.3 percent. Housing was cheaper last month from a year ago.
Consumer prices rose an average 0.5 percent last year and the central bank said in October it expects priced to accelerate to a gain of between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent this year.
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