SINGAPORE, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation stayed at zero in January, compared to a 0.4 percent increase for the last month of 2017, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a joint release on Friday.

Meanwhile, the MAS Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport, rose to 1.4 percent in January from 1.3 percent last December.

The authorities attributed the flat CPI inflation mainly to lower accommodation and private road transport inflation and said that the MAS Core Inflation rose because higher retail inflation offset a decline in food inflation.

According to the release, Singapore's CPI inflation is expected to stay in the range of 0-1 percent in 2018. The MAS core inflation is likely to be in the 1-2 percent range this year.