SINGAPORE (REUTERS) - Singapore's monetary policy remains appropriate and the Government's revised growth forecast is within the scope of the the central bank's October policy decision, a senior Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) official said on Wednesday (Nov 25).
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose an annualised 1.9 per cent in the third quarter from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Wednesday.
That was far better than the government's advance estimate issued in October of 0.1 per cent growth. The median forecast in a Reuters survey was for a flat quarter.
MTI also narrowed its forecast for Singapore's GDP growth in 2015 to "close to 2.0 per cent" from 2-2.5 per cent and gave a 1.0-3.0 per cent growth outlook for 2016.
Jacqueline Loh, MAS deputy managing director, said the central bank's inflation forecasts had not changed in the light of the revised GDP figure.
MAS core inflation is expected to come in at 0.5-1.5 per cent in 2016, compared to around 0.5 per cent in 2015. Headline inflation is projected to average between -0.5 and +0.5 per cent in 2016, compared to around -0.5 per cent this year.