BANK lending in Singapore fell in September from the previous month, dragged down by weaker business loans, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed on Friday. This is the first contraction since April.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which essentially captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$608 billion last month, down 0.8 per cent from August, the MAS figures showed.

In August, bank lending stood at S$613 billion, up 0.5 per cent from July.

In September, business loans fell 1.6 per cent to S$367 billion from August, when they were up 0.8 per cent.

Growth in consumer lending was up 0.2 per cent at S$241 billion last month compared to August. In August compared to July, growth was flat.

From a year ago, bank lending in September was up 0.6 per cent, weaker than the 1.5 per cent year-on-year gain posted in August.