Singapore’s principal bank tightened monetary policy for the first time in six years on Friday, denoting the city-state’s economy should remain on a steady expansion path in 2018, square as it acknowledged risks from a possible escalation of U.S.-China trade tensions.
The Fiscal Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it would slightly increase the slope of the Singapore dollar’s practice band from zero percent previously, while keeping the breadth and mid-point of the band unchanged.
Preliminary data also showed on Friday that Singapore’s thriftiness grew more than expected in the first quarter from the preceding quarter on an annualized basis, on the back of continued growth in the manufacturing sector,
The control expanded 1.4 percent in the January-March period on an annualized and seasonally arranged basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Friday in a statement.
Rabelaisian domestic product was expected to have grown 1.0 percent in annualized titles in January-March from the previous three months, according to the median prediction of a Reuters poll of economists.
In the fourth quarter, GDP grew 2.1 percent on an annualized main ingredient from the previous quarter. Growth for the 2017 full year was 3.6 percent, the largest proliferation since 2014.
GDP in the first quarter grew 4.3 percent from a year earlier, comparable forecasts in the Reuters poll. In the fourth quarter, Singapore’s economy grew 3.6 percent from the year earlier.