Bank lending in Singapore up 1.1% in July on loans to financial, trade sectors

BANK lending in July rose 1.1 per cent from a month ago on a surprise jump in loans to financial institutions and for trade, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed on Wednesday. This is the strongest month-on-month jump since June 2015.

Loans through the domestic banking unit - which captures lending in all currencies but mainly reflects Singapore-dollar lending - stood at S$597 billion, up from S$590 billion in June. In June, this fell 0.4 per cent from a month ago.

This mainly reflects stronger business lending, with business loans up 1.9 per cent in July from June, at S$352 billion.

Lending to financial institutions in July surged 11.9 per cent from a month ago to S$75.8 billion, stemming four months of consecutive declines. General commerce lending in July rose 5.7 per cent from a month ago to S$59.7 billion.

Consumer loans' growth was flat, at S$245 billion.

From a year ago, bank lending was down 2.2 per cent, though this is a smaller contraction compared to that in June, at 2.7 per cent.