Singapore’s central bank on Wednesday left its monetary policy settings unchanged, as was widely expected, and said its current policy policy was justified.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) administers monetary policy, rather than interest rates, allowing the Singapore dollar to rise or fall against the currencies of its main trading partners within an undisclosed band.
The central bank said in its statement, “Since core inflation is expected to remain low this year, MAS assesses that a policy stance is appropriate.”
MAS expects major inflation, its preferred price gauge being monetary policy, which only rises slowly for the rest of the year and peaks at 0% –1% in 2021.
The central bank adjusts its policy through three levers: the slope, mid-point, and width of the policy band, known as the nominal effective exchange rate, or S $ NEER.
All 15 economists voted Reuters It was predicted that MAS would keep its policy unchanged.
Singapore’s economy has unexpectedly grown in the first quarter from a year earlier, helped by strong manufacturing activity, preliminary figures showed on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 0.2% year-on-year in January-March. Economists voted by Reuters A decline of 0.2% was expected.
Massa said that Singapore’s GDP growth this year is expected to officially exceed the upper end of the 4-6% forecast range.
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