SMU Assistant Professor of Finance Aurobindo Ghosh, co-creator of SInDEx and Project Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at SMU, said that the CPI numbers released last week were within expectations, but as inflation expectations are usually rather ‘sticky’, they are slow to react downwards. Singapore is a small and open economy, so it is affected by policies not just in Singapore but across the world, including imported inflation (which affects oil price movements and other commodities) and domestic pressure (such as rental and labour costs). In the medium term, if inflation is anchored, small fluctuations in prices should not affect long-term inflation expectations. From the survey, Singaporeans are generally aware of global economic events like the issue of Quantitative Easing and the impact which tapering will have on their household finances