Buy Singaporean Dollars

Established by the Board of Commissioners of Currency in April 1967, the Singaporean dollar (denoted as SGD) is the official currency for the country. Prior to that time, Singapore had shared a common currency with Malaysia, but it lost that monetary union when it became independent. However, the Singaporean dollar remained on par with the Malaysian ringgit until 1973. The dollar was originally pegged to the British pound, but that peg ended in the 1970s. It was then briefly pegged to the US dollar. The dollar was originally called the orchid, and it is now pegged to the Brunei dollar, with which it is completely interchangeable. The country has a market-oriented exchange regime and allows the currency to float. In October 2002, the Board of Commissioners of Currency was dissolved and its functions were passed on to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which serves as the country's central bank.

The conversion rate of the Singaporean dollar to the British pound remained fixed until the end of the Sterling Area in the 1970s because the currency was pegged to the pound. At that point the conversion rate began to fall steadily, stabilizing at approximately 3.2 GDP to SGD in the 1980s. Over the course of the next decade, the rate fell a bit more, averaging approximately 2.5 GDP to SGD in the 1990s. In the early part of the current decade, the conversion rate began to slowly rise, reaching 3.0946 GDP to SGD in 2004, which was the highest rate since 1989. Although it continued to rise a little for the most part in this century, the conversion rate has remained very stable and averaged approximately 3 GDP to SGD for most of the time.

The conversion rate for the Singaporean dollar has remained relatively static in recent years, averaging approximately 3 GDP to SGD for the last couple of years. This stability can be attributed in part to the fact that the state's mixed economy has very little market intervention, although the state does own or control a minimum of 60% of the island city-state's Gross Domestic Product. Conversion rates did begin to fall slightly in 2008 due in large part to the global economic crisis, during which time it averaged about 2.5 GDP to SGD for the year. A steady but not marked decline in the latter half of that year was evident, but there is hope for another rise if the economy begins to stabilize itself once again.