THE Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) stay-the-course policy gives investors and business owners a welcome anchor of stability in today's choppy economic waters.

The central bank on Tuesday announced that it would leave the slope, width and centre of its exchange rate policy band unchanged from its January stance for a "modest and gradual appreciation".

The policy decision was hardly a given. A poll by The Business Times showed seven of 13 economists calling for easing via a lowering of the policy band's mid-point as late as a week before the policy statement. Of the six economists who did not expect easing, half expected the policy band to be widened, with a small minority correctly predicting no change.