SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) – Singapore will release its
half-yearly monetary policy statement on April 13, along with
advance GDP estimates for the first quarter of 2012, the trade
ministry and central bank said on Thursday.
The releases are set for 8 a.m. (0000 GMT).
Most economists expect the Monetary Authority of Singapore
to keep monetary policy on hold and continue to allow a “modest
and gradual” appreciation of the Singapore dollar to combat
inflation, which remains stubbornly high in the city-state.
MAS may also change its language in its April statement to
indicate a slight tightening in its policy stance from October.
In October, the central bank said it would retain its
appreciation bias but reduce the slope of the Singapore dollar
policy band, signalling a slower rise against its undisclosed
trade-weighted basket of currencies.
The Singapore dollar now trades around 1.258 to the
U.S. dollar and 1.655 to the euro.
For gross domestic product (GDP), economists expect the
economy to have expanded slightly during the first quarter on a
year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis, avoiding a technical
recession.
Singapore’s economy – driven by manufacturing of electronics
and pharmaceuticals, financial services and trade flows that are
three times the size of its GDP – contracted an annualised and
seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011
from the previous three-month period.
(Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by John O’Callaghan)
