By Xinghui Kok and Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s central bank on Monday left its monetary policy settings unchanged, as expected, as data showed the economy picked up pace in the third quarter.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it will maintain the prevailing rate of appreciation of its exchange rate-based policy band known as the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate, or S$NEER.
The width and the level at which the band is centred would also be maintained, the MAS said.
“The risks to Singapore’s inflation outlook are more balanced compared to three months ago,” MAS said in a statement.
“Singapore’s growth momentum has picked up and the negative output gap is projected to close in the second half of 2024.”
As a heavily trade-reliant economy, Singapore uses a unique method of managing monetary policy, tweaking the exchange rate of its dollar against a basket of currencies instead of domestic interest rates like most other countries.
Separately, advance estimates from the trade ministry showed gross domestic product (GDP) rose 4.1% in the third quarter from a year earlier, after the economy grew an annual 2.9% in the second quarter.
The trade ministry in August adjusted its GDP growth forecast range for 2024 to 2.0% to 3.0%, from 1.0% to 3.0% previously.
GDP growth in 2023 was 1.1%, down from 3.8% in 2022.
