Singapore's headline inflation rate (CPI-All Items) is 1.8% year-on-year as of April 2026, and MAS core inflation, the measure the central bank watches most, is 1.4%. Both sit well below the 2022 peak of roughly 6%, but prices are still rising, just more slowly. That means the $1,000 you keep in a low-interest account quietly loses buying power every year. This guide explains what the two inflation numbers actually measure, why they differ, what is pushing prices in 2026, what MAS expects for the rest of the year, and the concrete things you can do so inflation does not eat your savings.
Singapore reports two main inflation numbers, and they tell slightly different stories. As of the latest data for April 2026, headline inflation (CPI-All Items) is 1.8% year-on-year and MAS core inflation is 1.4% year-on-year. Core eased from 1.7% in March, mostly because services and retail goods prices grew more slowly, while headline held steady at 1.8% as private transport and accommodation costs rose.
On a month-on-month basis the overall price index actually fell 0.3% from March to April, while core ticked up 0.2%. Month-on-month moves are noisy, so the year-on-year figure is the one to anchor on. For the whole of 2025, headline inflation averaged 0.9%, the lowest full-year reading in years, which is why the rise back toward 1.8% in early 2026 is worth paying attention to.
To put it plainly: a basket of goods and services that cost $100 in April 2025 costs about $101.80 in April 2026. That is a far cry from 2022, when the same basket would have jumped about $6 in a single year. Inflation today is mild by recent standards, but it is not zero, and the gap between mild inflation and the near-zero interest most people earn on idle cash is exactly where your money loses ground.
| Measure | Year-on-year | Month-on-month | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPI-All Items (headline) | 1.8% | -0.3% | The full consumer basket, including cars and housing |
| MAS Core Inflation | 1.4% | +0.2% | Excludes private transport and accommodation |
CPI-All Items measures the average price change across everything a typical Singapore household buys: food, transport, housing, clothes, healthcare, recreation, the lot. It is the number that best reflects your actual cost of living because it includes the big-ticket, distinctly Singaporean items most other countries do not have at this scale, namely car prices (driven by Certificate of Entitlement premiums) and owner-occupied accommodation.
MAS core inflation strips out exactly those two items: private road transport and accommodation. MAS does this because COE prices and housing rents swing wildly on policy and supply factors that have little to do with broad-based price pressure in the economy. By removing them, core gives a cleaner read on underlying inflation, which is what guides monetary policy. When you read that MAS is tightening or easing policy, core is the number it is reacting to.
The practical takeaway for you: watch headline to understand your own cost of living, and watch core to anticipate what MAS might do with the Singapore dollar's exchange rate. When the two diverge, as they do now (1.8% headline versus 1.4% core), it usually means car and housing costs are running hotter than everything else.
The Singapore Department of Statistics tracks the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services and rebases the weights periodically to reflect what households actually spend on. The current series uses 2024 as the base year (rebased from 2019 in 2024), so the index reads 100 in 2024 and stood at about 102 in April 2026. The basket is weighted, so a 5% rise in food prices moves the headline number far more than a 5% rise in, say, postage, because food is a much larger share of household spending.
The weights come from the Household Expenditure Survey, the latest being the 2023 survey, which records what resident households actually buy. SingStat then collects prices each month for about 6,800 brands and varieties across roughly 4,500 outlets, from supermarkets and hawker centres to clinics and online stores, and publishes average retail prices for around 85 everyday items. The CPI deliberately leaves out things that are investments rather than consumption, so the purchase price of a home, mortgage repayments, income tax, and shares or other financial instruments are not in the basket, although the rental value of owner-occupied housing is included as a proxy for the cost of shelter.
The split between headline and core in 2026 points to where the pressure is coming from. Private transport is the standout: transport inflation climbed as global oil prices rose on conflict in the Middle East, feeding into petrol pump prices, and COE premiums stayed firm. Accommodation costs also nudged headline up, though housing rental growth has been cooling compared with the 2022 to 2023 surge.
On the core side, the picture is calmer. Services inflation and prices for retail and other goods both grew more slowly in April, which is what pulled core down to 1.4%. Food inflation has been steady and moderate. So the everyday stuff, your kopi, groceries, dining out, haircut, is rising at a gentle pace, while the volatile big-ticket items (cars, petrol, rent) are doing most of the lifting on the headline figure.
One thing not driving inflation in 2026: the GST. The Goods and Services Tax rose from 8% to 9% on 1 January 2024 and there is no further increase announced for 2026, so unlike 2023 and 2024 there is no tax-led bump to prices this year. The CDC and GST Vouchers continue to offset some of the cost of living for lower- and middle-income households, which you can read about in our CDC Vouchers guide and GST Voucher guide.
| Category | Year-on-year | Versus March |
|---|---|---|
| Transport | 7.0% | Up from 6.0% |
| Healthcare | 3.1% | Down from 4.0% |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 1.7% | Up from 1.5% |
| Food | 1.6% | Unchanged |
| Household durables and services | 1.1% | Up from 0.9% |
| Clothing and footwear | 1.0% | Up from 0.9% |
| Housing and utilities | 0.2% | Steady |
MAS publishes a forecast range for both inflation measures and revises it through the year. In its April 2026 monetary policy statement, MAS raised its forecast for both MAS core inflation and CPI-All Items inflation to 1.5% to 2.5% for the full year, up from 1.0% to 2.0% in January. The upward revisions reflect higher imported costs, with oil prices a recurring theme.
Because core inflation was expected to pick up and stay elevated for a few quarters, MAS responded by increasing slightly the rate of appreciation of the Singapore dollar against the currencies of its main trading partners. A stronger Singapore dollar makes imports cheaper in local terms, which is MAS's main tool for keeping imported inflation in check. So when you hear the central bank is letting the Sing dollar appreciate faster, it is fighting inflation on your behalf.
For planning purposes, treat 1.5% to 2.5% as the working range for 2026. That is below the long-run pain of 2022 but above the unusually quiet 0.9% of 2025. The sensible assumption for your own budgeting and saving decisions is that your cost of living rises roughly 2% a year, and that any money earning less than that is shrinking in real terms.
| Year | CPI-All Items inflation | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ~6.1% | Post-pandemic supply shocks, energy prices, GST at 7% |
| 2023 | ~4.8% | GST rose to 8%, prices still elevated |
| 2024 | ~2.4% | GST rose to 9%, inflation cooling |
| 2025 | 0.9% | Lowest full-year reading in years |
| 2026 (forecast) | 1.5% to 2.5% | MAS April 2026 projection |
Today's 1.8% looks tame against Singapore's own record. The worst stretch was the 1970s oil crisis, when the OPEC embargo quadrupled global oil prices and dragged headline inflation to around 22% for the full year of 1974, with the rate running near 30% in the first half of that year. The reverse came almost as fast: as the oil shock faded and global growth slowed, prices fell and Singapore recorded mild deflation in 1976. That swing from roughly 30% to below zero in two years is the single clearest reminder that inflation here is driven heavily by imported costs, which is exactly why MAS leans on the exchange rate to manage it.
Deflation is not just a 1970s curiosity. Singapore's headline CPI fell about 0.5% in both 2015 and 2016 as global oil and commodity prices slumped, and MAS responded by setting the slope of its policy band to zero in April 2016, in effect pausing the managed appreciation of the Singapore dollar. Prices dipped again in parts of 2020 during the pandemic shock. So the country has lived through both extremes, and a year of falling prices is not unheard of.
Across the decades the typical reading is low and steady. Singapore has averaged roughly 2% to 2.5% headline inflation over the long run, low by global standards and a deliberate outcome of the way MAS runs monetary policy through the currency rather than interest rates. For your own planning the lesson is twofold: assume a long-run cost-of-living drift of about 2% a year, and do not be lulled by quiet years like 2025 into thinking inflation has gone away, because the imported-cost channel can push it back up quickly.
| Period | Headline inflation | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | ~22% (near 30% in H1) | OPEC oil embargo, imported cost shock |
| 1976 | Mild deflation | Oil shock faded, prices fell back |
| 2015 and 2016 | About -0.5% each year | Global oil and commodity slump; MAS set policy band slope to 0% |
| 2022 | ~6.1% | Post-pandemic supply shocks and energy prices |
| Long-run average | Roughly 2% to 2.5% | Low and stable, managed via the exchange rate |
The real cost of inflation is not the price tag at the checkout, it is what happens to money you leave sitting still. If inflation runs at 2% and your savings account pays 0.05%, your cash loses about 1.95% of its buying power every year. Over a decade that compounds into a meaningful loss without you spending a cent.
Run the numbers: $20,000 left in a 0.05% account for 10 years grows to about $20,100 in nominal terms, but if prices rose 2% a year over that period, you would need roughly $24,380 just to buy what $20,000 bought at the start. In real terms you are more than $4,000 worse off for having done nothing. This is why inflation is sometimes called a stealth tax on idle cash.
The flip side is that inflation is not all bad for everyone. If you have a fixed-rate loan, like an HDB housing loan at 2.6%, mild inflation slowly erodes the real value of what you owe, which works in your favour as a borrower. The group that gets hurt most is savers holding large cash balances at near-zero interest, and retirees living off fixed sums. The defence is the same for everyone: keep your money earning a return at least equal to inflation.
The goal is straightforward: earn a return that at least matches inflation, ideally beats it, on the money you do not need for day-to-day spending. You do not need to take big risks to clear a 1.5% to 2.5% hurdle. Here is the ladder, from safest to higher-return.
Start with your emergency fund. Three to six months of expenses should stay liquid, but liquid does not mean lazy. A high-yield savings account can pay several times what a basic account does, and the money is instantly accessible. Money you will not touch for six to twelve months can sit in a Singapore Treasury bill, Singapore Savings Bond or fixed deposit, all capital-safe. The June 2026 SSB issue carries a 10-year average return of 2.11%, near the top of the 1.5% to 2.5% inflation range, while the latest 6-month T-bill cut off at about 1.47%, closer to the bottom of it. Compare them in our SSB vs T-bill vs fixed deposit breakdown.
For longer-term money, cash and bonds alone rarely beat inflation by much after tax and time. A diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds or ETFs has historically returned well above inflation over multi-year horizons, with more ups and downs along the way. Even a simple monthly investment into a broad global ETF, dollar-cost averaged, turns the inflation problem into a growth opportunity. Our guide on how to start investing in Singapore walks through the practical steps.
Do not overlook CPF. The Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts pay a 4% floor, comfortably above current and forecast inflation, and the Ordinary Account pays a 2.5% floor; both are government-backed, and the 4% SMRA floor has been held to at least 31 December 2026. A voluntary cash top-up to your SA or RA is one of the few risk-free ways to lock in a real return above inflation, with the bonus of income tax relief within limits, though the money is locked away for retirement. If you are weighing a CPF top-up against an SRS contribution for the tax relief, our SRS vs CPF top-up comparison lays out the trade-offs.
| Option | Recent return | Beats forecast inflation (1.5% to 2.5%)? | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic savings account | Often 0.05% | No | Fully liquid, but loses real value |
| 6-month T-bill | About 1.47% (Jun 2026 cut-off) | Marginal, near the low end | Capital-safe, money tied up 6 months |
| Singapore Savings Bond | 2.11% 10-year average (Jun 2026 issue) | Yes, at the upper end | Capital-safe, can redeem any month |
| CPF Ordinary Account | 2.5% floor | Yes | Locked for housing or retirement use |
| CPF SA, MA, RA | 4.0% floor (held to 31 Dec 2026) | Clearly | Locked away for retirement and healthcare |
| Diversified global ETF | Historically well above inflation | Yes over multi-year horizons | Value swings in the short term |
Beating inflation on your savings is half the battle. The other half is keeping your spending from drifting up faster than prices do, which is a trap known as lifestyle inflation. When your pay rises, it is easy to let spending rise just as fast, so you never actually get ahead. The fix is to bank a fixed share of every raise before you adjust your lifestyle.
A workable structure is the 50/30/20 rule: 50% of take-home pay for needs, 30% for wants, 20% for savings and investments. When inflation pushes up the cost of needs, the discipline is to trim wants rather than raid the savings bucket. Tracking where your money goes makes this far easier, and there are several free apps that do it for you, covered in our expense tracker apps roundup.
Practical inflation defences for the everyday budget: use your CDC Vouchers before they expire, compare grocery prices across chains (our FairPrice price comparison shows the gaps add up), and lock in big recurring costs like your home loan rate while you can. None of these are dramatic on their own, but together they buy back a percentage point or two of cost-of-living pressure, which is roughly a whole year of inflation.
As of April 2026, headline inflation (CPI-All Items) is 1.8% year-on-year and MAS core inflation is 1.4% year-on-year. For the full year 2025, headline inflation averaged 0.9%.
Headline inflation (CPI-All Items) covers the whole consumer basket, including cars and accommodation. MAS core inflation excludes private road transport and accommodation, giving a cleaner read on underlying price pressure that guides MAS's monetary policy.
Headline inflation rose mainly because of higher private transport costs, as global oil prices climbed on Middle East conflict, plus firm accommodation costs. Core inflation actually eased, as services and retail goods prices grew more slowly.
In its April 2026 statement, MAS raised its forecast for both core and headline inflation to 1.5% to 2.5% for the full year, up from 1.0% to 2.0% in January, citing higher imported costs including oil prices.
No. GST rose to 9% on 1 January 2024 and there is no further increase announced for 2026, so there is no tax-led price bump this year, unlike in 2023 and 2024 when the GST was raised.
If inflation runs at 2% and your account pays near zero, your cash loses about 2% of its buying power each year. At 2% inflation, prices roughly double every 36 years. Money earning less than the inflation rate is shrinking in real terms.
Keep your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account, park short-term cash in T-bills, Singapore Savings Bonds or fixed deposits, invest long-term money in diversified low-cost index funds or ETFs, and consider a CPF SA or RA top-up at the 4% floor for a risk-free real return.
Headline inflation peaked at roughly 6.1% in 2022, driven by post-pandemic supply shocks and energy prices. It then eased to about 4.8% in 2023, 2.4% in 2024 and 0.9% in 2025.
The record was the 1970s oil crisis, when the OPEC embargo pushed full-year 1974 headline inflation to around 22%, with the rate running close to 30% in the first half of that year. As the oil shock faded, prices reversed into mild deflation by 1976.
Yes. Headline CPI fell about 0.5% in both 2015 and 2016 as global oil and commodity prices slumped, prompting MAS to set its policy band slope to zero in April 2016. Prices also dipped in parts of 2020 during the pandemic, and Singapore saw deflation in 1976.
In April 2026 transport was the standout at 7% year-on-year, driven by higher petrol prices from rising global oil costs and firm COE premiums. Healthcare was next at 3.1%, while food rose 1.6% and housing and utilities just 0.2%.
The Department of Statistics tracks prices for about 6,800 brands and varieties across roughly 4,500 outlets each month, weighting them by what households spend based on the Household Expenditure Survey 2023. The current index uses 2024 as its base year. It excludes home purchase prices, mortgage repayments, income tax and financial investments.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.