Singapore's bank lending records 18th consecutive growth

SINGAPORE, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's total loans and advances including bills financing of Domestic Banking Units (DBU) grew 5.36 percent year on year to a predicted 661.6 billion Singapore dollars (about 500 billion U.S. dollars) in March, according to data released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Monday.
It marked the 18th straight month for DBUs to achieve positive year-on-year growth in total loans and advances.
Meanwhile, the DBU's total loans and advances went up 1.64 percent month on month in March. The growth rate is larger than that



of 0.05 percent for February.
In March, Singaporean DBU's loans to businesses grew 5.64 percent year on year and 2.69 percent month on month, to 397.83 billion dollars (300 billion U.S. dollars).
In a breakdown, the loans to building and construction reached 122.44 billion dollars (92 billion U.S. dollars), declining 0.43 percent year on year and accounting for about 30.78 percent of the total business loans.
DBU's consumer loans in March reached 263.77 billion dollars (200 billion U.S. dollars), up 4.93 percent year on year and 0.09 percent month on month.