Singapore's forex market hit US$337b average daily turnover in 2012

Here's how it fared versus other currencies.

According to Ministry of Trade and Industry's Economic Survey of Singapore 2012, Singapore’s foreign exchange market posted an average daily turnover of US$337 billion in 2012,  largely unchanged from 2011. 

Trading in major currencies such as the United States Dollar, Euro and Japanese Yen continued to dominate the market, with the Euro/US Dollar currency pair registering the highest trading volume.

Trading in the US Dollar/Singapore Dollar currency pair contributed less than 10 per cent to the total turnover.

In 2012, the British Pound and the Euro gained 4.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent against the US Dollar respectively, while the Japanese Yen weakened by 11 per cent against the greenback.

The British Pound was supported by safe-haven inflows into the United Kingdom due to sovereign debt concerns in the Euro area.

However, the Outright Monetary Transactions programme announced by the European Central Bank helped to alleviate some of these sovereign debt concerns, thus lending support to the Euro.

In the United States, the greenback was weighed down by the Federal Reserve’s open-ended asset purchase programme and policy stance to keep interest rates low until unemployment reaches 6.5 per cent.

Among the G4, the Japanese Yen underperformed as the Liberal Democratic Party-led government pledged to work with the Bank of Japan to end deflation in Japan through more aggressive policies.