Singapore bank lending hits fastest monthly growth since Dec 2024; full-year lending at multi-year high

[SINGAPORE] Singapore’s bank lending in December 2025 charted the highest monthly increase since December 2024, driven primarily by an increase in loans to businesses.

Loans and advances – including bills financing – from commercial banks to residents rose 1.5 per cent to S$886.1 billion, from S$873.1 billion in November, going by preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released on Friday (Jan 30).

Business loans were up 2 per cent month on month in December 2025, hitting S$538.7 billion; consumer loans grew 0.8 per cent to S$347.4 billion.

Among business loans, lending to the wholesale trade sector grew by the most, rising 9.9 per cent to S$77.9 billion in December 2025.

This brought total loans to the general commerce industry – of which wholesale trade is part – to S$99.2 billion, an increase of 7.7 per cent.

Loans to the information and communications sector also logged one of the largest increases, up 7 per cent at S$14.5 billion; lending to professional, scientific, technical, administrative and support-service activities was up 5.5 per cent at S$14.9 billion.

Among consumer loans, those for share financing grew the fastest, rising 5.6 per cent to S$721.4 million.

For the full year, bank lending was up 5.8 per cent at S$10.26 trillion, from S$9.69 trillion the year before.

Based on available data from MAS – which go back to July 2021 – last year saw the highest growth in lending.

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In 2024, bank lending rose 1.6 per cent from that in 2023. The year 2023 recorded a 4.5 per cent fall from 2022’s figure.

Selena Ling, chief economist and head of group research at OCBC, said there was a “growth turbo charge” from the artificial intelligence (AI)-related sectors in the fourth quarter of 2025, which drove the general improvement in business and consumer confidence.

This was helped by the lower interest rate environment and an ease in US tariff concerns in the second half of 2025, she said.

Independent economist Song Seng Wun noted that growth in business loans was consistent as Singapore’s economy performed better than expected in 2025.

For consumers, share financing also rose in the last few months as the local stock market picked up, he added.

For 2026, Song said that Singapore’s growth would likely be slower after a stronger-than-expected 2025, especially given continued “flip flops in policy announcements” worldwide.

That said, he still sees growth opportunities in Singapore, adding that the Republic should continue to diversify into other products and markets.

For 2025, lending by the manufacturing industry saw one of the biggest growth rates, up 19.7 per cent at S$298.4 billion.

This coincided with Singapore’s economy expanding by 4.8 per cent in 2025, supported by strong growth in the manufacturing sector, based on advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

The rise in gross domestic product in 2025 exceeded the revised 4.4 per cent growth in 2024, as well as the official forecast of “around 4 per cent” in 2025, which MTI upgraded last November.

But this was offset by a 7.5 per cent decline in loans to the agriculture, mining and quarrying industries, to S$42.1 billion.

For consumers, car loans rose 11.5 per cent to S$103 billion for the whole of 2025. Meanwhile, share financing was down 22.2 per cent at S$7 billion.

The year saw a streak of record-high Certificates of Entitlement premiums, which went as high as S$128,105 for Category A vehicles in October’s first round of bidding.