Asia Economic Notes: Singapore: Price pressures unlikely to abate

Research evidence excerpt

Asia Economic Notes: Singapore: Price pressures unlikely to abate

23 July 2026

Asia Economic Notes

In addition, several components currently acting as negative contributors in the

tradable CPI basket are likely to turn inflationary, in addition to other upside risks.

We discuss these in turn.

Electricity. It is set to spike from July with electricity tariffs rising by 16% YoY in

Q3, directly impacting businesses and households. Businesses have reported

being "rattled by higher electricity and gas prices", and could begin passing on

higher energy as well as accumulated non-oil supply cost increases to consumers.

Memory chip prices. Average memory chip prices have risen >400% from a year

ago, but its impact has not fully fed through to consumer electronic goods. PC

and mobile prices have seen some increase, but other goods such as household

appliances are still seeing benign or negative inflation, suggesting potential price

increases.

Vegetable/Palm oil. Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil exporter, recently

implemented a stricter B50 biodiesel mandate and tightened its natural resource

export policies. We expect this to tighten global supply of palm oil, which is used

in a wide variety of consumer goods, and eventually spill over to Singapore given

the latter’s high import intensity.

Groceries and supermarket goods. The lifting of various price controls by end-

August, such as those at supermarkets, will remove artificial suppressors of

inflation, allowing underlying cost pressures to manifest more fully in consumer

prices. Impending El Niño effects add further upside risk.

Energy prices are still higher than pre-war baseline. This will continue to exert

cost pressures across various sectors. Moreover, Qatar is reportedly pausing