Singapore’s consumer price index is expected to show an annual decline for a 21st straight month in July, a Reuters poll showed, but some analysts say prices may have bottomed out and the index could return to positive territory by the year-end. The median from a Reuters survey of 12 economists was for the CPI to have fallen 0.5% in July from a year ago. In June, the CPI fell 0.7%, extending a record run of consecutive year-on-year declines in headline CPI to 20 months–the longest streak since Singapore’s independence in 1965. The CPI slid 1.6% in May for its biggest year-on-year drop in nearly 30 years.
