Bank lending slides again in February

Singapore

BANK lending in February fell from a month ago, dragged by a contraction in business loans for the third straight month that reflects persistent weakness from trade loans.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which essentially captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$604 billion in February, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed on Monday. This fell 0.6 per cent from S$607 billion in January.