Singapore bank lending up in Nov: MAS

BANK lending in Singapore rose in November from the previous month, lifted by growth in business loans, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed on Thursday. This reverses a contraction seen in October.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which essentially captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$604 billion last month, up 0.4 per cent from October, the MAS figures showed. In October, bank lending stood at S$602 billion, down 1.1 per cent from September.

Business loans in November rose 0.4 per cent to S$362 billion from October. A month ago, it fell 1.9 per cent.

Consumer lending grew 0.4 per cent to S$242 billion in November from a month ago. In October, it rose 0.2 per cent.

But from a year ago, bank lending in November fell 0.7 per cent. This is a sharper contraction compared to the 0.4 per cent year-on-year fall posted in October.