SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's annual headline and core inflation rates likely remained unchanged in March from the previous month, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
Singapore's consumer price index is expected to have risen 0.5 percent in March from a year earlier, the poll of 10 economists showed, unchanged from February.
"Headline and core CPI are expected to continue rising in March, supported by an uptick in services inflation and higher oil prices," said Maybank Kim Eng Securities economist Lee Ju Ye.
The poll's median for the annual increase in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) core inflation measure in March was 1.7 percent, also steady from the month before.
The central bank's core inflation measure excludes changes in the price of cars and accommodation, which are influenced more by government policies.
MAS tightened policy for the first time in six years at its semiannual meeting last week. The central bank said that core inflation should come in within the upper half of its forecast range of 1-2 percent in 2018, while headline all-items inflation is projected to be in the upper half of the 0-1 percent range for the whole of 2018.