Singapore's consumer price index (CPI) inflation eased slightly to 5.5 percent in December from 5.7 percent in the previous month, the Department of Statistics said on Wednesday.
The higher inflation was mainly attributable to higher costs of housing, transport as well as food. The cost of housing rose by 9. 9 percent year on year, while that of transport rose by 10 percent, the department said.
The cost of food also rose by 3.7 percent year on year.
Nevertheless, the increase in the cost of private transport moderated from 14 percent to 12 percent.
For the year 2011 as a whole, the consumer price index inflation averaged 5.2 percent.
The department said the rise was a higher 5.7 percent for the top 20 percent of the income group, compared with 4.7 percent for the bottom 20 percent of the households.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has said it expected the inflation to be between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent in 2012, but some private economists said they expected the inflation to be rather persistent.
The Singapore government has allowed the local currency to appreciate against a basket of foreign currencies in the first half of 2011 in order to rein in the inflation, but the pace of the appreciation eased in the second half./.