Singapore financial markets functioning normally despite volatility: MAS

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S financial markets are functioning normally despite the heightened volatility in both global and domestic markets, the Republic's central bank said on Friday evening just before the market closed.

"MAS has left a higher level of liquidity in the banking system through its money market operations, and Singapore dollar interest rates have eased in tandem with global interest rates," the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement.

"The nominal effective exchange rate of the Singapore Dollar has eased in an orderly manner within the MAS policy band, in line with weakening economic conditions," it said.

The authority added that it stands ready to ensure the orderly functioning of financial markets and the stability of the financial system in Singapore.

The central bank's next policy review is in April 2020.

Stock markets around the world were steeped in a bloodbath the past week amid heightened fears over the Covid-19 outbreak, which was declared a pandemic midweek by the World Health Organization, and the oil price crash, after talks between Saudi Arabia and Russia collapsed.

Trading on US stock markets was halted twice this week due to the massive sell-off, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday seeing its biggest plunge - at 10 per cent - since 1987.

Singapore's Straits Times Index closed 1.67 per cent lower at 2,634 on Friday, extending Thursday's losses to a four-year low.