Daily Briefing: Experts forecast lower loan growth; 18,000 new HDB flats to be launched

And Noble exits 2015 with cut to junk from Moody's.

Loan growth in Singapore is expected to fall to five percent for the whole of 2015, but this could decline further next year. Between 2013 and 2015, while domestic growth has slowed down, overseas growth was able to compensate for slowness in domestic growth. But now, with China-led regional slowdown, even the overseas loan expansion has come down as well. Read more here.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is planning to launch about 18,000 new Build-To-Order (BTO) flats in 2016, more than the 15,000 units launched this year, said National Development Minister, Lawrence Wong, in a blog post. The new flats will be spread across different locations, catering for every budget and need. Find out more here.

Asia’s top commodity trader exits 2015 in very different shape to how it began the year. Noble Group Ltd. has lost almost two-thirds of its value, with its stock trading near the lowest since 2008, after a year of attacks on its finances by critics including the anonymous Iceberg Research and short-seller Muddy Waters LLC. The latest blow, amid a rout in raw materials, is the cut in its credit rating to junk by Moody’s Investors Service on concerns over its liquidity. Read more here.