Inflation is up 4.3%

These are the Singapore inflation rates for 2008:
January: 6.6%
February: 6.5%
March: 6.7%
April: 7.5%
May: 7.5%
June: 7.5%
July: 6.5%
August: 6.4%
September: 6.7%
October: 6.4%
November: 5.5%
December: 4.3%

Food and Housing is leading the charge, rising by 6.5% and 14.4% respectively year on year. The inflation rate is still moderating downwards, and more so since most of the year-end sales have been extended to an indefinite timing.

The average inflation for 2008 is 6.5%, a shade lower than my earlier estimate of 6.6% here. It just goes to show again how rapidly the world changed over the past year. I would have never expected oil to reach USD 33 per barrel, but it did recently.

As indicated in my other post, downward pressure will be there for all the groups, and it'll be of no surprise to me if we experience deflation for the year 2009. That would be welcome for all the mid to lower income groups. I would think we will experience deflation for at least 6 months due to the high base last year.

However, with all these talk about deflation, I still find that I'm spending a lot of money on necessities and transport. Especially transport.