Singapore to allow more cars in move to slow inflation
File photo shows traffic passing Saint Andrew’s Road in front of the old City Hall and Supreme Court Building at dusk in Singapore. Singapore will allow its car population to grow at a faster pace in the next few months, it said on May 30, 2012, a move expected to ease inflationary pressures in the city-state. – Reuters picSINGAPORE, May 30 – Singapore will allow its car population to grow at a faster pace in the next few months, it said today, a move expected to ease inflationary pressures in the city-state.
Inflation in Singapore accelerated to 5.4 per cent year-on-year last month, with private road transport prices rising 8.2 per cent.
Private road transport, which includes car prices, has a 11.66 per cent weighting in the consumer price index (CPI).
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it will allow the vehicle population to grow at an annualised pace of 1 per cent from August 2012 to January 2013, before slowing the pace to 0.5 per cent per annum.
Singapore’s car population is around 600,000, excluding taxis. The lighter restriction translates each month to an additional 390 certificates of entitlement (COEs) that motorists need to own a car in Singapore, according to the LTA.
The LTA had originally planned to reduce the vehicle growth rate to 0.5 per cent from the current 1.5 per cent per annum from August, causing a spike in the cost of COEs. – Reuters
