Singapore bank lending grows at a slower pace in December

Bank loans in Singapore grew by a smaller amount last month, dragged down by a slowdown in home loans and a continued decline in car loans.

Preliminary data released on Thursday by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed that total bank lending in December increased by 1.5 per cent to $574.2 billion compared with the previous month.

In November, $565.8 billion of bank loans were disbursed, an increase of 2.1 per compared with October's $554.3 billion of loans.

In the consumer segment, total loans crept up by just 0.3 per cent compared with the previous month, to $225 billion.

Housing and bridging loans rose just 0.4 per cent to $166.5 billion.

Car loans retreated for the twelfth straight month to $10.7 billion.

The business segment, however, stayed robust. Overall business loans in December went up by 2.3 per cent compared with the previous month to $349.2 billion, as lending rose to all business sectors.

Lending to the agriculture, mining and quarrying sector was especially strong, rising by 35 per cent to $5.1 billion.

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