Amount of Foreign Reserves Transferred to GIC To-date and Additional Reserves Accumulated since February 2022

Parliamentary Question by Ms Hazel Poa:

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) how much of the official foreign reserves have been transferred to GIC to date; and (b) how much additional reserves has MAS accumulated since the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Amendment) Act came into operation on 21 February 2022.

Parliamentary Reply by Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister for Finance Mr Lawrence Wong:

              Since the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) (Amendment) Act commenced on 21 February 2022, MAS can subscribe for Reserves Management Government Securities (RMGS) to transfer Official Foreign Reserves (OFR) not needed by MAS to conduct monetary policy and support financial stability, to the Government for longer-term management by GIC. As at end-May 2022, the outstanding amount of RMGS was S$122.6 billion, net of the RMGS redeemed by the Government.

MAS’ OFR balance decreased by S$105.9 billion from S$579.2 billion as at end-February 2022 to S$473.3 billion as at end-May 2022,[1] primarily reflecting the above transfers to the Government to bring OFR closer to the optimal amount as assessed by MAS. This was partially offset by other factors such as reserve accumulation through monetary operations and investment income.

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[1] Available at https://www.mas.gov.sg/statistics/reserve-statistics/official-foreign-reserves