Singapore bank lending up 0.7% in January: MAS data

SINGAPORE'S bank lending rose for the third straight month in January on higher loans to businesses, data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed on Monday.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which captures lending in all currencies, but reflects mainly Singapore-dollar lending - climbed 0.7 per cent to S$683.59 billion in January, compared with S$678.72 billion in December.

Business loans grew 0.9 per cent month on month to S$422.73 billion in January. Loans to the single-largest business lending segment - building and construction - inched up 0.3 per cent to S$150.40 billion to reverse a 0.6 per cent contraction in December.

Consumer loans were also up 0.5 per cent to S$260.87 billion in January on the back of a steady increase in housing loans, which rose 0.4 per cent to S$202.14 billion month on month.

Year on year, total bank lending in January fell 1.1 per cent.