Singapore dollar vulnerable to 2017 low on surprise easing risk

Singapore’s dollar has already slid 3.3% against the greenback this year, making it the worst-performing currency in Asia after Thailand’s baht.

SINGAPORE’s currency may tumble to the lowest level since 2017 if the central bank responds as strongly to the spread of the coronavirus as it did to the SARS epidemic two decades ago.

That’s the view of Tan Teck Leng, a macro strategist at UBS Group AG’s Global Wealth Management Chief Investment Office, who thinks the Monetary Authority of Singapore could re-center its policy band for the currency lower. It took this rare action in 2003 to deal with the fallout from SARS and doing so again could see the local dollar dip through 1.40 versus the greenback, according to Tan.