Singapore banks' loan growth slows further to 1.37% in April

Housing loans fell to a three-month low at $202.76b.

Singapore bank loans grew by 1.37% YoY to $667.14b in April, according to preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This represented another month of slowdown from 2.2% growth in March and 3.3% in February as the consumer finance segment continues to take a heavy beating.

Also read: Singapore bank loans may grind to a halt at 0.5% in 2019

Headline figures grew largely due to increases in business loans, which rose 2.29% to $411.70b. Loans to businesses in the building and construction sector led the gains and grew 13.04% to $138.90b from $122.88b last year.

The heightened corporate M&A buzz will continue to lend support to business loans following big deals that have been announced in recent weeks including CapitaLand’s acquisition of Ascendas-SingBridge; the M1 buyout by Keppel and SPH and the mega-merger of OUE Commercial REIT and OUE Hospitality Trust, CIMB said in an earlier report.

Loans to general commerce and financial institutions dipped 4.11% and 9.69% YoY to $65.92b and $97.72b respectively. Housing loans continued their steep downtrend after falling to a three-month low at $202.76b although the figure is still slightly higher compared to last year's $202.50b.

“We expect business loans to continue driving loan growth for the year as mortgage drawdown remains slow,” DBS said in a May report.

Also Read

OCBC Ignite aims to double poly graduate intake

Singapore’s big banks aim for 96% emissions cut by 2050

Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you dight and create an advertising campaign, in print and digital, on this website and in print magazine.

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

I want to download the media kit

Top News

What is Lorem Ipsum?

What is Lorem Ipsum? Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Evergreen Group obtains financing license to expand in Malaysia