Singapore's consumer price index (CPI) inflation accelerated from 3.6 percent in last November to 4. 3 percent in December, which made the inflation for the whole year of 2012 standing at 4.6 percent, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry jointly announced on Wednesday.

The MAS said the higher CPI in December was mainly due to higher contribution from costs of accommodation and cars again.

The accommodation cost inflation reached 8.5 percent in December, much higher than the 6.6 percent in November. The CPI figure for accommodation cost throughout the whole year was at 8.9 percent on year.

It has been the main drive for the country's inflation for a long time. The government announced the seventh round of stringent measures to cool the city-state's residential property market on Jan. 11, including higher buyer's stamp duty, tighter loan-to- value limits, higher minimum cash down payment for second and subsequent housing loans, as well as seller's stamp duty for industrial properties.

Besides the accommodation cost, the city-state's private road transport cost represents another drive for the CPI inflation. In December, private road transport cost climbed by 9.3 percent after increasing by 6.7 percent in November, which was in tandem with the recent surge in Certificates of Entitlement (COE) premiums.

In the last tender of 2012, COE for cars up to 1,600cc recorded at 82,000 Singapore dollars (66,830 U.S. dollars). And the price still went higher to 92,100 Singapore dollars (74,061 U.S. dollars) in the first tender of 2013 on Jan. 9.

"Together, accommodation and private road transport costs accounted for more than two thirds of CPI-All Items inflation in December," the MAS said in a statement.

Meanwhile, services inflation edged down to 2.5 percent in December from 2.9 percent in November, while the prices of food in the CPI also went down from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent during the same period.

The MAS core inflation, which excludes accommodation and private road transport costs, was also slowed to 1.9 percent, compared with that of 2.0 percent in November mainly "due to lower contribution from costs of services and food."

For the whole year of 2012, MAS Core Inflation was 2.5 percent, compared with 2.2 percent in 2011.

The central bank said in a statement that imported inflation will be generally benign considering the continued weakness in the global economy. But there are still some risks from food sector " as supply conditions stay tight which could result in higher import and domestic food prices". And also persistent tightness in the labor market will increase wage cost up in 2013, "some of which will continue to pass through to consumer prices."

So MAS core inflation will be 2-3 percent for the whole year, while the CPI-All items inflation will be 3.5-4.5 percent in 2013, the MAS added.