With the revision, account holders now earn a bonus interest rate of 1.5 per cent a year when they spend at least S$1,000 monthly with eligible credit and debit cards, up from 1 per cent.

Some industry insiders said the move could deal a blow to the dominance of existing players like Income Insurance.

The Singdollar has strengthened 6 per cent to 7 per cent against a weakening US dollar in 2025 – the strongest year-to-date performance in the last 20 years.

This means that regular income is still preferred for paying bills. Hence, banks “may consider various up-to-date income sources, such as a borrower’s rental income and annuity payouts”,

The cost to renew a COE is based on the average COE premium in the three preceding months. A five-year COE renewal costs half as much as a 10-year one.

Businesses in the hotels, restaurants and accommodation, health and social services as well as retail trade sectors showed high pessimism about economic prospects for the next 12 months

A liabilities-to-assets ratio of 11 per cent means that 11 per cent of a household’s assets are financed by debt. If the ratio is falling, then increasingly fewer assets are being financed by debts.

After accounting for inflation, which eased from 2023, real wages grew by 3.2 per cent in 2024, up from 0.4 per cent in 2023, MOM said

The Republic’s manufacturing output gained 5.9 per cent year on year in April, slipping from the previous month’s upwardly revised 6.8 per cent growth.

Analysts from Morgan Stanley are strong on Singapore equities, as the market continued to outperform global stocks year to date – with a total return of 13 per cent.

It found that family offices in South-east Asia preferred equities and bonds from developed markets such as the US, Singapore, Japan and Britain.

It rose in April as bigger increases in the prices of services and food more than offset lower retail and other goods inflation.