Singapore's bank lending falls 0.1% in April

BANK lending in April slipped again compared to a month earlier, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Tuesday showed.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which essentially captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$590 billion, down 0.1 per cent. In March, bank lending stood at S$591 billion, down 0.9 per cent.

Business loans in April fell 0.5 per cent to S$347 billion from March. A month ago, it was down 1.6 per cent.

Consumer lending was up 0.4 per cent at S$243 billion in April from a month ago. In March, it was flat.

From a year ago, bank lending in April fell 0.8 per cent. This is a smaller contraction compared with the 1.8 per cent year-on-year fall posted in March.

Amendment note: The earlier version of the story referred to the March figures. The story has been revised to reflect the most recent data.