Study: Cost of eating out likely to rise relative to incomes

Kopi cheaper in central Singapore; prata cheaper in the west

- Goh Yan Han

The cost of eating out in Singapore is likely to continue to rise relative to individual and household incomes in the future, according to an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) report on food prices here released on Monday.

The researchers came to this conclusion after collecting data on the costs of food items and meals at hawker centres, coffee shops and foodcourts from September to November 2022, and January to February 2023.

They found differences in food prices across regions as well as the two time periods, with notable increases in prices for 13 out of 18 food items in the second period.

It is the second time that the IPS is doing a study on food prices here, to come up with what it has called the Makan Index 2.0. The last study was published in 2017.

The team looked at the prices of 18 food and drink items or sets commonly sold at the food establishments across the three daily meals, such as kopi-o, wanton noodles, economic beehoon set or chicken chop.

They visited 829 food establishments 92 hawker centres, 101 foodcourts and 636 coffee shops across 26 residential neighbourhoods.

The study, led by research fellow Teo Kay Key with research assistants Hanniel Lim and Mindy Chong, is aimed at surveying food prices as a way to better understand an aspect of the costs of living in Singapore. However, it noted that the prices of food items were taken at face value, without adjusting for quantity or quality.

The report pointed out that the five-yearly household expenditure survey by the Department of Statistics found that food constituted 20.3 per cent of a household's average expenditure in 2017 and 2018, the second-largest component after housing and its related expenditure (28.9 per cent).