Singapore bank lending falls 0.7% in December

BANK lending in Singapore fell in December from the previous month, reflecting a contraction in business loans, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed on Friday.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which essentially captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$600 billion last month, down 0.7 per cent from November, the MAS figures showed. In November, bank lending stood at S$604 billion, up 0.4 per cent.

Business loans in December fell 1.2 per cent to S$357 billion from November. A month ago, it rose 0.4 per cent.

Consumer lending grew 0.2 per cent to S$243 billion in December from a month ago. In November, it rose 0.4 per cent.

From a year ago, bank lending in December fell 1.3 per cent. This is a sharper contraction compared with the 0.7 per cent year-on-year fall posted in November.