Brace for these price hikes in July

Prices of Changi Airport fees, water, and gas will rise.

Core inflation is expected to climb for the rest of the year as wage growth strengthens and economic growth broadens, Maybank Kim Eng said in a forecast.

Analyst Chua Hak Bin said consumers should watch out for upcoming prices hikes mostly to be implemented in July.

Changi Airport’s fees will jump by $13.30 starting 1 July. Water prices will go through their second phase of hikes from 1 July. Gas tariff for households by City Gas will also grow by 11 cents per kWh from 1 May to 31 July.

“Rising oil prices, which touched four-year highs in May, will likely pass through into consumer prices gradually in the second half of the year,” Chua added.

Maybank KE forecasts that headline and core inflation will hit +0.9% and +1.7% respectively in 2018. “We expect MAS to maintain the current ‘slight appreciation bias’ at the next policy meeting in October,” Chua added.

Headline inflation dipped 0.1% from last year, whilst MAS core inflation slipped to 1.3%, as a slower pace of price increases was seen across several major categories of the CPI basket.