Indicators point to impending rise in soured loans

THE indices for retail spending and industrial production are two leading indicators that signal an impending increase in soured loans in Singapore, said Moody's Investors Service in a report yesterday.

The credit-rating agency looked at leading indicators of deterioration in asset quality of banks in the Asia-Pacific region. For Singapore lenders, it identified the property price index, and the composite leading index, on top of that for retail spending and industrial production.

Moody's cited data from the retail sales index that showed spending had declined in 2013 over the year. The recovery between the second half of 2010 and the second half of 2012 still put retail spending below the height in the pre-crisis period.