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Singapore to continue slowing US dollar's fall

Singapore's central bank and some of its other Asian counterparts will continue to intervene to slow the US dollar's decline in order to protect their own economic growth, a top Singapore official said yesterday.

The falling US dollar threatens Singapore's export-driven economy, which expanded by 1.1 percent last year and is expected to grow between 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent this year, said Friedrich Wu, the chief economist at Singapore's Ministry of Trade & Industry.

"A sharp fall of the US dollar under the downward pressure of the twin deficit" could pose a risk to Singapore's economic growth. "But Asian central banks are likely to intervene heavily to prevent this."

The dollar has been falling sharply for months on long-standing market concerns over the US trade and budget deficits. Since September, the US dollar has fallen by 5.4 percent against the Singapore dollar and by 20 percent against the euro.

Wu's remarks were the first public comments from Singapore officials on the US dollar's decline.

Several Asian central banks, including the Bank of Japan, have been intervening in foreign exchange markets to curb the US dollar's sharp decline in recent months. The Monetary Authority of Singapore is also said to have intervened but has declined to comment on it.

Asian governments are worried a weak US dollar would hurt their exports and therefore hurt economic growth.
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