The lowdown on the Singapore dollar
With its roots way back in the Spanish dollar, the Singapore dollar has evolved into a currency all of its own. These days, it’s usually written as S$ to differentiate it from all the other dollar currencies out there – and there’s quite a few across the world!
Between 1845 and 1939 Singapore used the Straits dollar, a currency used across a group of British territories in Southeast Asia known as the Straits Settlements. This was replaced in 1953 by the Malayan dollar before being again replaced by the Malaya and British Borneo dollar. In 1965, Singapore sought independence from Malaysia, putting an end to the common currency used between Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Hard to keep up, right?
On 7 April 1967, Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency and issued its first independent notes and coins. Until 1973, you could still exchange Malaysian ringgit with the Singapore dollar at the same rate, and even today, you can still exchange the Brunei dollar with the Singapore. Good to know!
A look back at Australian dollar to Singapore dollar rates
The Singapore dollar was initially pegged to the British pound at a rate of S$60 to £7. As Singapore’s economy continued to grow and its trade with other countries began to expand, Singapore pegged its currency against a fixed and undisclosed trade-weighted basket of currencies from 1973 to 1985.
After 1985 Singapore adopted a monitoring band, meaning that the currency was allowed to float within a specified bandwidth, closely monitored by the Monetary Authority of Singapore against the currencies of Singapore’s main trading partners.
Singapore dollar over the last 10 years
In November 2005, 1 US dollar was exchanging at a rate of 0.59 Singapore dollars, rising at a steady pace to reach 0.83 by September 2011. The Singapore dollar has been in gradual decline over the last four years, falling gently to 0.73 or S$0.73 to $1.
In October 2008, the Singapore dollar fell dramatically against the Aussie dollar, from 1.31 in July 2008 to 0.929 as a result of the global financial crisis. A year later in October 2009, it was back up to 1.29 and has been steadily declining ever since, and sits at a rate of 1.04 to 1 AUD as of May 2017.
