Similarly, Singapore’s foreign reserves saw the addition of US$0.5 billion ($0.7 billion), bringing the total holding for the month to US$328 billion.
Meanwhile, bank lending growth for local and Asian currency units moderated to -0.2% year-on-year, improving from August’s -0.8% performance.
This was heralded by a -1.8% year-on-year decline in loans to consumers due to lower lending for credit card (-13.5%), cars (-6.9%) and other segments, the RHB team observe.
This is a result of the subdued domestic demand, they explain.
Conversely, loans to businesses picked up, growing 0.3% thanks to higher disbursements to growth segments such as business services (+12.9%), financial institutions (+9.4%) and building and construction (+7.8%).
Loans to these segments, particularly the building and construction sector expanded as their projects resumed in the month.
As for the other segments, “growth remains uneven, as outward-facing economic segments continue to be affected by a slowdown in activities caused by the pandemic,” RHB’s economists say.
Looking ahead, the RHB team expect a 2% contraction in loan growth this year and a slight improvement of -1% in 2021.
RHB Securities Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore foreign reserves, Singapore’s bank lending
