The Monetary Authority of Singapore April 2019 statement is due no later than April 12
Earlier previews here:
- SGD traders - a preview of the MAs meeting
- Ahead of the Singapore monetary policy statement - fin min upbeat on SE Asia (this is not really a preview though)
Barclays have an out of consensus call:
- We expect the MAS to tighten its FX policy further in April by raising the slope of its official SGD NEER policy band by 50bp to an estimated 1.5%, against consensus expectations of the policy settings being left unchanged.
- If the MAS raises the slope as we expect, we believe it will also signal that it sees little need for further tightening or slope increases, ie, 1.5% is the new neutral slope compared with 2.0% previously.
- This is despite likely lower Q1 GDP growth, dragged down by the slump in JanuaryFebruary industrial production growth. However, we expect the manufacturing drag to be largely offset by stronger construction activity and a modest pick-up in services activity
Quick remarks via SG:
- Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is likely to hold is FX rate-based policy steady at the semi-annual policy meeting this Friday after tightening policy twice last year by increasing the slope of its policy band to strengthen the SGD and keep inflation under control.
