Chart of the Day: Housing loans up a measly 1% in February

Othe retail loans outpaced this growth.

According to Barclays Research, February monetary statistics from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed that deposits contracted by 0.9% m/m while loans grew 1.2% m/m.

Other retail loans (ex housing) continued to grow at a reasonably strong pace, at 2.4% m/m (22% y/y) despite the MAS’s concern over the rise in consumer debt, while housing loans rose by 1% m/m.

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System deposits contracted by 0.9% m/m, across both DBU (-0.4%) and ACU (-0.7% in US$ terms and -1.4% in SG$ terms). System loans rose 1.2% m/m, again led by ACU + 2.1% m/m in USD terms, while DBU loans rose 0.4% m/m.

Loan growth was driven by corporates, mainly in agricultural, mining and quarrying (3.3% m/m), and manufacturing (2.6% m/m), similar to the trends in January. After the strong 36% y/y growth in general commerce loans in FY13, growth slowed to 1.6% m/m in February.