The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has maintained the prevailing rate of appreciation of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER) after its October monetary policy meeting.
There will be no change to the width and level of which the S$NEER is centred, says the central bank on Oct 13.
The move comes amid a slowing down in core inflation as well as an expected improvement in Singapore’s GDP growth gradually over 2024. Growth in Singapore’s major trading partners should also pick up over time in 2024.
“Against this backdrop, the current appreciating path of the S$NEER policy band is assessed to be sufficiently tight. A sustained appreciation of the policy band is necessary to dampen imported inflation and curb domestic cost pressures, thus ensuring medium-term price stability,” says MAS in its statement.
“MAS will closely monitor global and domestic economic developments, amid uncertainty on both inflation and growth,” it adds.
Since MAS’s monetary policy statement (MPS) in April, the S$NEER was said to have “broadly strengthened” in line with the appreciating policy band.
See also: MAS likely to keep policy parameters unchanged in upcoming October meeting: analysts
Quarterly monetary policy statement schedule
Further to its announcement, MAS said that it will shift to a quarterly monetary policy statement schedule in 2024. Statements will be released in January, April, July and October, instead of April and October previously.
“This is part of MAS’s continuing efforts to enhance monetary policy communications,” says MAS in its statement. “MAS continues to uphold a medium-term orientation in its policy formulation to secure low and stable inflation. The next monetary policy statement will be released in late January 2024.”
