Bank lending here rose 0.5 per cent in May from April, finally turning the corner after four straight months of decline.

The total number of loans disbursed amounted to about $597 billion, according to data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore released yesterday.

Business lending was up 0.8 per cent at $359.7 billion over April's figures, as demand for credit grew across most segments.

Loans for general commerce companies jumped 3.4 per cent month-on-month to $72.8 billion.

Lending to financial institutions, the second-largest contributor to business loans, climbed 1.5 per cent to $74.9 billion.

Bucking the trend, however, was the transport, storage and communication sector, where borrowing fell 3.4 per cent to $18.8 billion.

Loans given out to the building and construction sector, the largest lending component, also slid 0.07 per cent to $104.2 billion.

The statistics for consumer lending in May were less upbeat, with such loans dipping 0.03 per cent to $237.4 billion, compared with that in the month before.

Car loans continued on their downward spiral, falling a further 1.1 per cent month-on-month to $8.1 billion.

But credit card loans increased 0.3 per cent to $9.6 billion, while housing and bridging loans inched up 0.03 per cent to $179.4 billion.

Ms Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank, said in a note that total bank lending slipped 0.1 per cent in year-on-year terms - the first such fall since October 2009.

Business loans also tanked further, shrinking for the second straight month by 2.4 per cent year-on-year, dragged down by lending to the general commerce and manufacturing sectors, she noted.

Still, Ms Ling said that bank loans may "remain soft, but should not contract year-on-year for an extended period of time".

"The global growth environment is sluggish but not heralding a recession at this juncture, barring a full-fledged contagion fallout from Grexit, which is not our baseline scenario," she said, referring to Greece's possible exit from the euro zone should it default on a debt repayment.