recorded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in the last financial year was due to a currency translation effect, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday .
In FY2021/22, the MAS made investment gains of S$4 billion on Singapore’s foreign reserves. However, these were outweighed by negative currency translation effects of S$8.7 billion arising from a stronger Singdollar as the central bank tightened monetary policy. “In fact, given the purpose of the in safeguarding the international purchasing power of the Singapore dollar, it is the foreign currency value rather than the Singapore dollar value of the that matters.”
One of the ways in which the MAS contributes to the Government’s budget is the net investment returns framework where the Government can spend up to 50 per cent of the expected long-term real return on the net assets invested by MAS, GIC and Temasek. But recognising that contributions from the central bank can vary considerably from year to year due to the combined effect of currency translation and investment returns, the Government has taken the step to smoothen this volatility by requiring annual contributions by MAS to be paid in equal proportions over a period of three years.“This means that even though MAS recorded a net loss for FY2021/22, the Government will receive S$1.