People walk through Raffles Place in the financial district in Singapore on March 29, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)

SINGAPORE - Singapore's key consumer price gauge rose in April at its fastest pace in a decade, driven by higher inflation for food, official data showed on Monday.

The core inflation rate — the central bank's favored price measure - rose to 3.3 percent in April on a year-on-year basis, the highest since February 2012. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a 3.4 percent increase.

Headline inflation rose to 5.4 percent, the fastest since April 2012, compared with economists' forecast of 5.5 percent.

READ MORE: S'pore tightens monetary policy, growth slows in Q1

Singapore's central bank tightened its monetary policy last month, making a double barrel move, as the city-state ramped up its battle against soaring prices made worse by the Ukraine conflict and global supply snags.