[*StarDust*]

Halt in Singdollar's rise
It is set to hold steady after MAS stands pat on its monetary policy
By Robin Chan



THE rise of the Singdollar against the United States greenback came to a halt on Monday after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) signalled it was not going to change its exchange rate policy.

The Singapore dollar, which is kept within a set range against a basket of other currencies, fell to $1.399 to the US dollar at 5.30pm, after hitting a 15-month high of $1.39 last Thursday.

Despite the slight fall, economists do not expect the Singdollar to lose much more value against its US counterpart. They expect it to trade between $1.37 and $1.40 until the second quarter of next year. This is due mainly to the continued weakness of the greenback and market anticipation that the MAS will eventually allow the Singdollar to strengthen.

Some currency strategists predict that the Singdollar could even hit $1.34 against the US dollar by the end of next year.

In Monday's closely watched statement, the MAS announced it was keeping its monetary policy unchanged, falling in line with central banks in South Korea and the European Union.

Despite the economy rebounding 22per cent and 15per cent in the second and third quarters respectively, it cautioned that the strength of Singapore's recovery was expected 'to moderate beyond the initial uplift'.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_441524.html