Report: Driven by multiple factors, Singaporeans' inflation expectations for this year dropped from 4.5% last quarter to 4.2%

The one-year ahead headline inflation expectations dipped to 4.2% in December 2023, from 4.5% in September 2023, according to the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx) Survey published jointly by SMU’s Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) and DBS. SMU Assistant Professor of Finance, creator and Founding Principal Investigator of the Quarterly DBS-SKBI SInDEx Project Aurobindo Ghosh said, “In Singapore domestically, the moderation in expectations might have been slightly dampened by the 1% increase in goods and services tax in 2024, although Singaporeans opined that a slowdown in global growth might also limit any significant increase in overall price levels. The overall and component-wise inflation expectations of Singaporean consumers have largely declined, even after accommodating behavioural biases, indicating some levels of anchoring of medium-and long-term inflation expectations.”