SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s central bank on Friday tightened monetary policy for the fourth time this year to rein in inflation running near a 14-year high.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), at a scheduled policy meeting, said it will re-centre the mid-point of the exchange rate policy band known as the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate, or S$NEER. There will be no change to the slope and width of the band.
MAS has made two off-cycle tightening moves this year, in January and July, as inflation in the city-state remains elevated. This is the fifth round of tightening since last October.
The core inflation rate — the central bank’s favoured price measure – rose to 5.1% in August on a year-on-year basis. It was 4.8% in July.
MAS said core inflation is likely to stay at about 5% for the rest of 2022, and into early 2023.
Gross domestic product (GDP) was up 4.4% in July-September on a year-on-year basis, according to advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry also released on Friday.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, GDP expanded 1.5% in July-September.
(The story has been corrected to show July-September GDP growth was 4.4%, not 4.5%, in paragraph 6, and adds Singapore in headline.)
(Reporting by Joe Brock, Anshuman Daga, Xinghui Kok, Chen Lin; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
