Minister: Food Prices in S’pore Are Expected to Increase in The Next Few Months

From electricity bills to transport fares, it seems that the earth is running out of resources and prices of everything are increasing. Even our beloved entertainment streaming network does not stand a chance.

This time, they’ve moved on to what we eat.

Minister: Food Prices in S’pore Are Expected to Increase in The Next Few Months

It looks like eating is going to be more expensive soon, for food prices in Singapore are expected to rise in the next few months.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has projected the overall inflation to average between 1.5% to 2.5% next year.

This is because of the rise in energy prices, higher prices for global food commodities, supply chain bottlenecks and labour shortages.

Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong also include other factors that affect the price hike such as higher imported prices, freight, labour and changes in the seasons.

As Singapore imports almost everything from natural gas to generate electricity to food, the increase in price globally will naturally translate to a higher price domestically.

In short, don’t blame our gahmen, blame the world and other gahmens instead.

In case you are not a food store owner, domestic food prices have actually been rising the past six months. Thus, it is expected that the prices of goods and services will increase as well.

Singaporeans Won’t Starve

We have good news though:, our gahmen is not planning to take after Thanos anytime soon for they will be assisting Singaporean families to mitigate the impact of these price hikes.

They will also continue to diversify their import sources to “keep prices competitive and enhance supply resilience.”

Lower-income households have received support through schemes like:

  • Comcare assistance
  • GST Vouchers
  • Budget 2020 Grocery Vouchers

MAS has also tightened monetary policy by slightly steepening the slope of its policy and for Singapore’s trade-weighted exchange rate. This allows the Singapore dollar to strengthen, making the imports cheaper.

This helps ensure price stability and to mitigate imported inflation and temper domestic cost.

Singapore’s Economic Recovery is on Track

Despite everything, Singapore’s economic recovery is on track. The Gross Domestic Product is expected to grow between 6% to 7% for a year. This will stop any global economic setbacks.

Our non-oil domestic exports have also increased 9.1% year on year in the third quarter this year.

TL;DR Food price will increase next year but the gahmen will help us get through it.

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Featured Image: Heng Lim/ shutterstock.com