Singapore Releases April 2010 Consumer Price Index
The consumer price index in April 2010 rose by 0.9 per cent over March 2010.
The increase was due largely to higher costs of transport, housing and “recreation & others”.
Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index moved up by 0.9 per cent.
Compared with April 2009, the consumer price index increased by 3.2 per cent in April 2010, owing to higher costs of transport, housing and food. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index was 3.9 per cent higher.
In the first four months of 2010, the consumer price index increased by 1.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2009. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index was 2.3 per cent higher during the same period.
Month-on-Month Changes
The consumer price index in April 2010 moved up by 0.9 per cent over March 2010. This increase reflected mainly higher costs of transport, housing and “recreation & others”. As a result of higher prices of cars and petrol, the cost of transport rose by 3.3 per cent. Housing cost increased by 1.1 per cent due mainly to higher accommodation costs and electricity tariffs. Service & conservancy charges (S&CC) also came in higher as rebates for
S&CC were given in March 2010 but not in April 2010. The cost for “recreation & others” rose by 0.8 per cent, due to an increase in the price of holiday travel packages. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index was 0.9 per cent higher in April 2010
compared to March 2010.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the consumer price index in April 2010 rose by 0.5 per cent compared with March 2010. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index moved up by 0.7 per cent.
Year-on-Year Changes
Compared with April 2009, the consumer price index increased by 3.2 per cent in April 2010, owing to higher costs of transport, housing and food. Following higher prices of cars and petrol, transport cost increased by 13.4 per cent. Housing cost rose by 2.9 per cent as a result of higher electricity tariffs and service & conservancy charges (S&CC) as rebates for S&CC were given in April 2009 but not in April 2010. Food prices went up by 1.2 per cent, arising from more expensive prepared meals, vegetables, fresh seafood, chilled pork, as well as rice & other cereals. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index was 3.9 per cent higher in April 2010 compared with the same period a year ago.
The consumer price index in the first four months of 2010 rose by 1.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2009. Excluding accommodation costs, the consumer price index moved up by 2.3 per cent over the same period.
Concept and Definition
The consumer price index (CPI) is commonly used as a measure of consumer price inflation. It measures price changes in a fixed basket of consumption goods and services commonly purchased by the households over time. The selection of goods and services in the CPI basket as well as their weights are kept constant at the base period to ensure that any changes in the CPI reflect only price changes.
The weighting pattern for the 2009-based CPI was derived from the expenditure values collected from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) conducted from October 2007 to September 2008. These expenditure values were updated to 2009, taking into account price changes between 2007/08 and 2009.
The CPI is compiled on a monthly basis. For longer periods, the CPI is derived by averaging the monthly indices. For example, the yearly CPI is derived by taking a simple average of the 12 months’ indices for the year.
Scope and Coverage
The CPI covers only consumption expenditure incurred by resident households. It excludes non-consumption expenditures such as loan repayments, income and property taxes, purchase of houses, shares and other financial assets etc. Resident households are defined as households headed by a Singapore citizen or permanent resident.
The 2009-based CPI basket covered a total of 6,500 brands. Measurement of Changes in the Consumer Price Index To calculate month-on-month change, the difference between the CPI for the specific month and that for the preceding month expressed in percentage term is used. This measures the change in average prices between the two months and serves as a useful short-term indicator of price movement.
To measure the year-on-year change, the CPI for the specific month is compared with that for the same month of preceding year. Likewise, the annual inflation rate for a specific year is computed by comparing the average for the 12 monthly indices with that for the preceding year.
Consumer Price Index for “All Items Less Accommodation”
Accommodation comprises “rental and owner-occupied accommodation”, as well as “minor repairs & maintenance”. Within accommodation, a significant share was attributed to “owner-occupied accommodation” cost which was computed based on the imputed rental concept and hence, has no impact on the cash expenditure of households. In addition, under minor repairs & maintenance, the rebates for service & conservancy
charges (S&CC) which are given to households living in HDB flats in different periods of the year also result in some volatility in the monthly CPI. Hence, the series on ‘All Items less accommodation’ is compiled as an additional indicator for interested users.
Seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index
The data series on CPI and its major components are seasonally adjusted using the X-12 procedure. Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing seasonal effects from a time series. Users interested in the underlying price trends could refer to the seasonally adjusted data series.
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