"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday said that Singapore's economy is likely to shrink by about 8 percent this year as the global economic crisis has pushed the export dependent nation into its worst economic downturn since the 1965.... The IMF's assessment of Singapore's GDP for 2009 is worse than the government's estimate of a 4 to 6 percent contraction...." [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Reuters adds that "...the IMF advised Singapore to keep monetary policy unchanged until its economy recovers and to allow the Singapore dollar to strengthen once the upturn was visible.... The IMF projected GDP should grow about 2.5 percent next year, but Singapore authorities believe growth could be stronger given signs of resilience in Asian trade and in advanced economies, the IMF said...." [Reuters/Factiva]

Channel NewsAsia reports that "...the IMF also observed that the Singapore dollar in real effective terms appears to be somewhat weaker than its medium-term equilibrium level. However, the real effective exchange rate should strengthen in line with fundamentals...." [Channel NewsAsia (Singapore)/Factiva]