Singapore records 3.04-pct growth in domestic bank lending for December 2018

Source: Xinhua | 2019-02-01

Singapore's total loans and advances including bills financing of Domestic Banking Units (DBU) grew 3.04 percent year on year in December 2018, according to data released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
It marks the 27th straight month of positive growth of Singapore's domestic bank lending.
On a month-on-month basis, the total loans and advances of DBUs decreased by 0.02 percent to a predicted 671.74 billion Singapore dollars (about 499.17 billion U.S. dollars) in December, compared to a 0.02 percent increase for November.
Last December, Singaporean DBU's loans to businesses grew 4.07 percent year on year but decline 0.03 percent month on month to 405.49 billion Singapore dollars. DBU's consumer loans in December reached 266.25 billion Singapore dollars, up 1.51 percent year on year but down 0.01 percent month on month.
Selena Ling, head of Treasury Research and Strategy of OCBC Bank, said on Thursday that the 3.04 percent year-on-year growth in domestic bank lending for December brought the average expansion to 4.7 percent for the full-year of 2018, which was still a moderation from the 6 percent year-on-year pace in 2017.
"For 2019, we expect that bank loans growth may remain soft in the coming months amid cautious business and market sentiments, notwithstanding that the U.S. Federal Reserve has essentially signaled no conviction to hike amid the current economic and market uncertainties," she added.