Prospects for SME growth this year rest on success of China’s reopening: OCBC

SINGAPORE’S small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) barely stayed in growth territory in OCBC’s latest quarterly index of their performance, and their prospects this year will depend on how China’s reopening pans out, said OCBC’s head of global commercial banking Linus Goh.

“If China is all humming and clicking as it had been before, then it will be quite a significant influence on growth, not just for Singapore but also for the region,” said Goh in an interview with The Business Times.

The OCBC SME Index declined to 50.2 in the fourth quarter of 2022, from 51.9 the previous quarter. But this was still the eighth straight quarter of year-on-year expansion, indicated by a reading of above 50.