In its latest Financial Stability Review released this week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) cautioned against the further build-up of household debt, which has risen during the pandemic even as the economy has slowed.

Compared with pre-Covid-19 levels in the last quarter of 2019, household debt rose by 3.7 per cent in the third quarter of this year, while nominal gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 0.1 per cent over the same period. As a percentage of GDP, household debt has risen to 70 per cent – 3 percentage points higher than the pre-pandemic level. The growth of such debt was especially pronounced over the past year, rising by 6.8 per cent in absolute terms.