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Singapore March core inflation quickens to fastest in more than a year

·1 min read
People shop at a pop-up store in Singapore

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's key price gauge rose by the fastest pace in more than a year in March, in part due to higher services inflation as well as smaller declines in the costs of retail and other goods, official data showed on Friday.

The core inflation rate — the central bank's favoured price measure - rose to 0.5% in March from a year earlier, compared with 0.2% in the prior month. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast an increase of 0.4%.

Singapore's headline consumer price index (CPI) spiked to 1.3% in March year-on-year -- the fastest in nearly four years -- from 0.7% in February.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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