Singapore: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) could be poised to ease – ING

Robert Carnell, chief economist at ING, points out that for some time now, they have been touting a view of an off-cycle easing by the MAS.

Key Quotes

“The weak state of Singapore's export industries, hit by the global tech slump, as well as the trade and tech war, together with softer global trade, suggested to us that the next MAS move would be to ease policy. The current policy stance is a 'modest and gradual' appreciation of the SGD Nominal effective exchange rate (SGD NEER) path. We think this could be revised to flat.”

“We also have suggested that the MAS would not want to wait until the next scheduled meeting in October before easing, and that an off-cycle easing was therefore likely. Moreover, we felt that if this was the case, then the MAS would most likely not want to hang about for too long.”

“As time ticks on, any delay would mean that before too long, there might be no point in moving off-cycle and that they could just as well wait until the October meeting. In other words, we felt that an easing announcement was imminent.”