SINGAPORE: During recent house visits at Compassvale and Anchorvale, residents have shared recurrent concerns over “how prices have risen, too far, too fast” to Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC).

“Folks intuitively understand that there are global factors at play when it comes to inflation. But when jumps are sharp, and felt in daily necessities—food, fuel, rent—it rocks our budgets, and households feel unable to cope, especially when they are already stretched thin,” he wrote in a June 9 (Friday) Facebook post.

The MP, who is an Associate Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School, wrote that salaries are likely to adapt and increase as the price of goods and services rise. However, the adjustment of late “has been remarkably muted,” he said.

He further explained that real wages went up from 3.3 per cent in 2020 to 1.6 per cent in 2021. But last year, the increase—at 0.4 per cent—was considerably less.

Assoc Prof Lim also noted that worse yet, “the burden of rising inflation doesn’t appear to have been equally shared.”

Profits gained by companies have stayed at a stable rate, with returns on assets for 2020 and 2021 at 5.2 and 5.3 per cent, and banks posted record profits in 2022.

He acknowledged the support the government extended by way of GST vouchers, which means they are funded by taxpayers, as well as cash grants.

Assoc Prof Lim underlined that, as shared by one resident, “the money is one-off, but the price increases are forever.”

The Sengkang GRC MP added that for this particular couple, “stubbornly low CPF interest rates” will affect lower purchasing power from their savings over time, as “Special and Medisave accounts will rise from 4 to a 4.01 next quarter, while other rates remain unchanged.”

Assoc Prof Lim ended his post by writing that the WP has repeatedly raised these issues in Parliament and has emphasized the need “to support households through this high-inflation environment, and have CPF interest rates adjust to better reflect inflation realities. We will continue to do so.” /TISG

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