Thursday, July 24, 2014

Singapore's central bank says too early to ease property curbs

Monetary Authority of Singapore said it’s too early for the city-state to ease property measures that is helping curb surging residential prices.

“Property prices, they remain at elevated levels, although they’ve just started to soften,” Ravi Menon, managing director of the MAS, as the central bank is known, at the release of its 2013/14 annual report today. “It’s very important that we secure the gains that we’ve made in stabilizing the market and restoring financial prudence.”

Debt levels among highly-leveraged households remain high, Menon said. The MAS has narrowed its 2014 inflation forecast to between 1.5% and 2% from 1.5% to 2.5% as the property curbs helped stabilize prices and rents, Menon said.

Residential values in the city-state slid for a third quarter in the three months to June to post the longest losing streak in five years after the government introduced loan measures last June, widening a campaign that began in 2009 to curb speculation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who’s also chairman of the central bank, said on July 4 that a further correction in the Singapore property market would not be unexpected.

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