Singapore weakens its dollar

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SINGAPORE unexpectedly eased monetary policy, sending the currency to the weakest since 2010 against the US dollar as the country joined global central banks in shoring up growth amid dwindling inflation, a Bloomberg report said.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which uses the exchange rate as its main policy tool, said in an unscheduled statement Wednesday it will seek a slower pace of appreciation against a basket of currencies. It cut the inflation forecast for 2015, predicting prices may fall as much as 0.5 percent.

The move was the first emergency policy change since one following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks for the MAS, which only has two scheduled policy announcements a year, reflecting how the plunge in oil has changed the outlook in recent months.

Singapore becomes at least the ninth nation to ease policy this month, as officials from Europe to Canada and India contend with escalating disinflation and faltering global growth.

“They’re essentially trying to stay ahead” by moving before the scheduled April policy review, said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Research in Singapore.

“We’ve already seen so many central banks cut. For Singapore to do such an unscheduled move, it has to be against the backdrop of enormous uncertainty.”