Singapore's bank lending growth slows in Oct.

Singapore's bank lending almost stalled in October, with the Singapore dollar lending growing by a modest 0.3 percent to 406.5 billion Singapore dollars (312.7 billion U.S. dollars), statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed. This is in comparison with the growth of 3.1 percent for September, local daily Business Times said on Thursday. Business loans shrank by 0.1 percent to 233.3 billion Singapore dollars (179.5 billion U.S. dollars), the first time it shrank 16 months, despite that the statistics were not seasonally adjusted. Over the year to Oct. 31, bank loans grew by 29.8 percent. Analysts said they expected the bank loan growth to slow further in 2012. The government warned last week that the Singapore economic growth is expected to slow sharply to just 1-3 percent next year and could stall if the developed economies slide into recession.