SINGAPORE: Homeowners servicing mortgages will need to tighten their purse strings further: The three-month Singapore interbank offered rate (SIBOR) on Wednesday (Mar 11) charged past 0.9 per cent — a level not seen since 2008 — amid widespread expectations that the United States Federal Reserve will raise benchmark borrowing costs by mid-year.
The local interest rate, widely used to price home loans here, closed at 0.87943 per cent Wednesday, figures published on the Association of Banks in Singapore website showed. SIBOR continued to rise on Thursday to above 0.9 per cent, banking sources said, doubling the level seen at the beginning of this year.
Analysts whom TODAY spoke to said SIBOR’s climb followed the weakening of the Singapore dollar against the greenback in January, but took on added momentum after a very strong February job market in the US raised the likelihood that the Fed will normalise interest rates come June.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
