The plunge in the benchmark rate comes as the Monetary Authority of Singapore promised to provide sufficient liquidity in the financial system to cope with the virus-induced crunch. As the MAS doesn’t set rates, but instead manages the currency against major trading partners as a policy tool, the city state’s borrowing costs also tend to track U.S.’s benchmark.
(May 21): Singapore is just a whisker away from joining the global negative-rate club.
The nation’s overnight borrowing rate was less than two basis points above zero on Tuesday, down from the year’s high of 1.68% in January. It has never gone negative before based on central bank data compiled by Bloomberg.
