Why the MAS’ $30.8 billion loss is a sideshow
What matters is whether it delivered on its core mandate to control inflation, which it did.
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The accounting losses incurred by MAS were a necessary price for its conduct of monetary policy.
PHOTO: ST FILE
One of the highlights of the annual report for FY2023 (ending on March 31) released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last week was that it made a whopping loss of $30.8 billion, the largest in its history, which comes on top of losses of more than $7 billion in the previous financial year.
The MAS is far from being the only central bank to report being in the red. In fact, it is in distinguished company, which includes the United States Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia, among others.
