easing credit conditions in the euroarea. the volume of bank lending to non - financial corporations has begun to grow again and bank lending rates have fallen across the euro - area but most noticeably in those countries where that had tightened the most. 2. monetary policy can foster long - term growth by supporting structural reforms the financial crisis in some ways revealed some structural weaknesses in many economies. in some cases there were excessive levels of public debt. 10 in others it were structural r. riley, c. rosazza - bondibene and g. young, 2015. “ the uk productivity puzzle 2008 – 13 : evidence from british businesses, ” bank of england working papers 531, bank of england. p. aghion, p. askenazy, n. berman, g. cette and l. eymard, 2012. “ credit constraints and the cyclicality of r & d investment : evidence from france, ” journal of the european economic association, european economic association, vol. 10 ( 5 ), pages 1001 – 1024, october. p. aghion, d. hemous and e. kharroubi, 2014. “ cyclical fiscal policy, credit constraints, and industry growth, ” journal of monetary economics, elsevier, vol. 62 ( c ), pages 41 – 58. a. bergeaud and g. cette and r. lecat, 2016. “ the role of production factor quality and technology diffusion in 20th century productivity growth, ” working papers 588, banque de france. c. reinhart and k. s. rogoff. 2010. “ growth in a time of debt. ” american economic review, 100 ( 2 ) : 573 – 78 ; lane, philip r. 2012. “ the european sovereign debt crisis. ” journal of economic perspectives, 26 ( 3 ) : 49 – 68. bis central bankers ’ speeches impediments to the flow of resources, in particular in the labour market and in the way credit was allocated between sectors, hence revealing that a malfunctioning of the financial sector can reinforce structural weaknesses. 11 in some cases both were present at the same time. of the uttermost importance were the structural changes targeting an improvement in the monitoring and the resilience of our financial system. arguably the financial crisis partly resulted from excess risk taking and overinvestment in low productivity sectors. 12 the basel 3 framework worldwide and the single supervisory mechanism in the euro - zone

funds are increasing their allocation to asia, specifically in asian real estate. singapore can play an important role as a gateway for global investors to access asian opportunities via our capital markets. as a leading home for global fund managers, total assets under management in singapore exceed s $ 720 billion with over 50 % of these funds invested into asia pacific. the singapore exchange is an established listing venue for regional property companies based in singapore as well as foreign property developers. alongside singapore ’ s vibrant reit market, we offer a strong value proposition for real estate players to tap on singapore ’ s capital market to finance the rapid growth in the asian real estate sector. singapore ’ s real estate investment trust ( reit ) market singapore was the first country in asia to introduce a regulatory framework to facilitate the offering of real estate investment trusts ( reits ). this framework allows property companies to securitise their completed real estate assets in the capital markets, realise capital gains and re - invest into developing new properties. by offering investors direct exposure to assets with stable cash - flows, reits tap a new pool of investors who are seeking higher - yielding securities, including pension funds and insurance companies. since the first reit listing in 2002, the singapore reit market has become the largest reit market in asia outside of japan. currently, singapore has 16 listed reits, making up a total market capitalization of over s $ 26 billion. singapore reits offer investors access to a diversity of real estate assets including retail malls, office buildings, industrial properties and serviced apartments. in 2006, we also saw the first dedicated hotel reit as well as asia ’ s first healthcare reit. several key factors have contributed to the growth of the singapore reit market. our established and robust, yet pro - business regulatory framework and competitive tax regime have drawn the attention of global investors, attracting the securitization of not just domestic, but increasingly offshore assets. the number of cross - border reits listed on the singapore exchange has increased, further consolidating singapore ’ s status as a regional reits hub. these reits offer global investors exposure to properties throughout asia pacific via the singapore market, including properties in china, hong kong, australia, indonesia, vietnam, malaysia and japan. to sharpen singapore ’ s edge as an asian reits hub, it is crucial for us to maintain a conducive environment both for issuers and for investors. to this end, mas regularly reviews its regulatory regime to