Singapore's core inflation rate remained stable at 1.4% in May 2026, despite global markets facing pressure from the Middle East conflict that has caused oil and fertilizer prices to rise.
Latest data released by the Singapore Department of Statistics shows that rising international energy costs have so far not had a major impact on the prices of goods and services in the country.
Core inflation is a measure that does not take into account the cost of housing and private transport as these two components often experience more significant fluctuations.
The 1.4% rate recorded in May was the same as the previous month and lower than most economists' expectations of inflation of around 1.6%.
Meanwhile, Singapore's overall inflation rate stood at 1.8%, also lower than the market forecast of 2%.
Despite the increase in food and transport costs, the increase was still contained. Food inflation rose to 1.8%, while transport inflation recorded 7.4%.
At the same time, housing and utility costs remained stable at a low rate of around 0.2%.
This performance shows that the Singapore economy is still able to withstand external pressures stemming from geopolitical uncertainties and rising global commodity prices.
In many countries, rising oil prices usually cause transportation and production costs to increase, thus pushing up prices for consumers. However, so far, the impact has not been as pronounced in Singapore.
This better-than-expected inflation data is also seen as able to reduce pressure on the country's central bank to tighten monetary policy in the near future.
Previously, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has taken steps to tighten monetary policy and raised its core inflation forecast for 2026 to between 1.5% and 2.5%.
At the same time, the Singapore economy has also shown encouraging performance. Economic growth in the first quarter of this year reached 1%, much higher than initial expectations.
This result shows that the country's economy is still on a solid track despite facing increasingly complex global challenges.
