Quarterly monetary decisions are valuable even if – or precisely when – they bring no change

THIS year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) moved to a quarterly schedule for its monetary policy decisions, adding two more scheduled meetings in January and July, on top of its existing meetings in April and October.

The decision might have seemed surprising, given that the central bank has not touched policy settings since October 2022.

Indeed, this January’s decision – as economists expected – saw no change to the policy band for the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER).