Singaporeans expect inflation to ease for the next 12 months due to the global economic slowdown and weak demand. The SKBI-MasterCard Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations report conducted by the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) at SMU and MasterCard shows that consumers expect headline inflation of 4.37 per cent this year. This was lower than the earlier expectation of 4.57 per cent when a similar survey was conducted in September. SKBI Programme Director Aurobindo Ghosh said: “Even though the United States possibly avoided falling off the fiscal cliff, many Eurozone economies are tittering on the brink of continued slowdown in productive activities and persistently high unemployment. This has created a downward pressure on global demand which in turn has manifested in low inflation rates in many Western and regional economies. In the medium term, despite the turmoil in the global economy, the SInDEx survey results have shown how grounded Singapore households are, so much so that even the professional forecasters with access to data and relevant market knowledge find it hard to beat their expectations.”