Temasek Engineering School, Singapore

i don’t believe how inflation is hitting all of us.  i’m not someone who spends a lot, but i can already feel the inflation in Singapore.  it’s terrible!   Even when prices go up in the past, like cuppa coffee up by 10 cents once in a while, it’s fine.  Bus fares going up by 5-10 cents, also fine. 

But now, it’s not just a one-off increase.  Its CONTINUOUS increase in prices.  That’s why we are all feeling the pinch!

Another example, a plate of my regular wanton noodles used to be $2.  Sometime last year, they upped the price to $2.50.  I felt ok.  Afterall, they hadn’t raised prices for years.  But guess what?  Today, just a year later, they upped the price to $3.00. 

A glass of Coffee-O used to be 60cents.  Late last year, all coffee shops raised it by 10 cents to 70 cents.  The Coffee Shop owners Association justified it by saying that they had not raised prices for 7-8 years.  Ok, fair enough.

But last week, they raised it AGAIN !!  Coffee-O is now 80 cents!

What’s happening???  Price increase is understandable and fine.  But not REPEATED price increases within a short period of time !!

The Singapore goverment made a serious mistake.  They failed to foresee high inflation around the corner.  And they raised GST from 5% to 7% in July 2007.–  serious mistake.  Very grave mistake.  We will all pay for that mistake…

The Singapore government should not have raised GST when inflation is suring upwards.  It’s the wrong time.  You don’t need to be an economics professor to know that.  It’s downright shows poor foresight, poor planning.

At the very least, couldn’t the government have staggered the increase (just like they did in 2004), raising it by 1% first, and then maybe another 1% a year or 2 later?

Why 2% at one go?…

Singaporeans are all going to pay for it.  We are going to get runaway inflation in Singapore.   Just watch.  We will all going to pay for it.