SINGAPORE - Singapore's annual inflation rate held at a 26-year high for a third month primarily on higher costs of food, housing, and transport and communication, according to data released Wednesday by Singapore's statistics department.

Consumer prices in June rose 7.5 per cent compared with the same month last year - the same annual rate recorded in May and April.

Food, which accounts for 23 per cent of the price index, rose 9.2 per cent from a year ago. Housing costs rose 13.4 per cent, while transport and communication expenditures recorded a 5.1 per cent annual increase.

Meanwhile, compared with the previous month, the department said, prices fell 0.3 per cent in June as clothing and footwear costs dropped 3.2 per cent during a countrywide marketing event known as the Great Singapore Sale.

Housing costs dropped 1.7 per cent in June compared with the previous month, while transport and communication fell 0.2 per cent from May. Food costs rose 0.6 per cent on-month.

Singapore, like other countries throughout Asia, has struggled to contain quickening inflation spurred by a surge in energy and food prices. The central bank expects inflation to slow by the end of the year as the economy absorbs a sales tax increase from last July, Khor Hoe Ee, assistant managing director of Singapore's central bank, said earlier this week.

Singapore's official inflation forecast for this year is five per cent to six per cent. The 7.5 per cent rate of the last three months is the highest recorded since 1982.

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