SGD: Record Highs To Continue

BMI View: With the Sing dollar surging past SGD1.3600/US$ today after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) re-centred the currency's policy band, we have revised up our end-08 and end-09 forecasts to SGD1.3450/US$ and SGD1.3300/US$ respectively. The MAS, which has felt compelled to act in order to dampen persistent inflationary pressures, believes that advance GDP estimates for Q108 show that the trade-dependent economy will not be adversely affected by further SGD strengthening. However, we retain some caution as growth in Q108 relied on the volatile pharmaceutical sector, while other areas of the economy indicate that a slowdown is currently in play.

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options: