{"id":605361,"date":"2026-04-14T02:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605361\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:45:09","slug":"mas-tightens-monetary-policy-raises-inflation-forecast-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605361\/","title":{"rendered":"MAS tightens monetary policy, raises inflation forecast for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GROWTH CONCERNS<\/p>\n<p>MAS also said higher inflation will crimp final demand in the coming months, and Singapore&#8217;s major trading partners are expected to see weaker growth.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The situation in the Middle East is evolving and remains highly uncertain. GDP growth in 2026 as a whole is likely to step down from the above-trend pace of growth recorded in 2025,&#8221; said MAS.<\/p>\n<p>Singapore&#8217;s economy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/singapore\/gdp-growth-q1-2026-advance-estimates-mti-6054626\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">grew 4.6 per cent in the first quarter,<\/a> down from 5.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the economy contracted 0.3 per cent. MTI warned that the Middle East conflict may weigh on economic activity in the coming quarters.<\/p>\n<p>Accumulated energy supply\u00a0shortfalls and higher input costs will weigh on the outlook for the Singapore economy, said MAS.<\/p>\n<p>But economic activity in some advanced markets should remain resilient, with global artificial intelligence-related investment expected to continue for now, the central bank said.<\/p>\n<p>Domestically, a steady pipeline of public infrastructure and housing investment will also support growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MAS said there are considerable risks to the outlook for both inflation and growth. For example, a more persistent disruption to energy supplies will worsen inflationary pressures worldwide and deepen the drag on growth. Industrial production may also be curtailed if key intermediate inputs are not available.<\/p>\n<p>A tightening in global financial conditions or an unexpected pullback in AI-related investment would also compound downside risks to growth.<\/p>\n<p>An update to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/singapore\/gdp-2026-growth-forecast-upgrade-manufacturing-tariffs-5918991\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GDP forecast of 2 to 4 per cent<\/a> will be given in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GROWTH CONCERNS MAS also said higher inflation will crimp final demand in the coming months, and Singapore&#8217;s major&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164,5465,109854,13196],"class_list":{"0":"post-605361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-inflation","13":"tag-monetary-authority-of-singapore","14":"tag-monetary-policy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}