Bank loans growth falls to 5.9% in July

Lower business loans slowed overall growth.

Singapore bank loans growth fell to 5.9% YoY in July, 0.5% lower than June's 7.6% rate.

According to OCBC, this brought the average for the first seven months to 6.0% YoY, but marked the first on-month decline since September 2016.

The moderation was mainly due to slower growth in business loans which also eased from 10.5% in June to 7.4% in July. This has also been the first monthly decline since January.

Here's more from OCBC:

We had earlier anticipated bank loans growth to expand by 10% YoY in 3Q17 to bring full-year bank loans growth to 7.0% YoY.

July is off to a somewhat slower start, but the August-December 2016 base is not too challenging at an average +0.5% YoY.

Nevertheless, if total bank loans stagnate around the July print of $632.6b, then full-year bank loans growth may fall short of our 7% YoY forecast to average around 5% YoY growth.