Bank loans to drop 5% in 2011
Domestic bank loans are expected to drop due to the high base and housing loan segment, OCBC said.
Despite the 14.5% growth in the previous year, the fastest pace of loans growth since December 2008, 2011 banks loans growth will moderate to around 5% y-o-y this year.
Barring any unexpected changes to the MAS monetary policy stance in April, OCBC expects that the 3-month SIBOR may stay contained around the 0.5% handle in H1 before gradually normalising to around 0.8% towards the year-end.