SINGAPORE, July 25 (Reuters) - Singapore's central bank on Wednesday said its net profit more than tripled to S$3.846 billion ($2.6 billion) in the year ending March 31, 2007 due to higher interest income and investment gains.

"Net profit of S$3.85 billion for the year resulted mainly from interest income and gains from asset markets, partially offset by the foreign exchange impact from the strengthening Singapore dollar," the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in its 2006/07 annual report, published on Wednesday.

Last year, the city-state's central bank reported a 68 percent slump in 2005/06 net profit to S$1.22 billion which it said was due to a rise in global interest rates and stronger Singapore dollar.

Total income for the year to March 31, 2007 climbed to S$5.18 billion from S$2.03 billion a year earlier.

Income from foreign operations jumped to S$4.84 billion from S$1.79 billion, while income from domestic operations climbed to S$331.2 million from S$233.4 million.

MAS keeps '07 growth forecast at 5-7 percent

Singapore's central bank reiterated its 2007 economic growth forecast of 5-7 percent with the transport engineering, biomedical, and services sector driving growth in the trade-dependent economy.

"Barring any shocks, overall GDP growth in the economy is expected to come in at 5 percent to 7 percent in 2007," the MAS said in its 2006/07 annual report.

While Singapore's trade-dependent economy is benefiting from strong demand for oil rigs and pharmaceuticals, the central bank warned that information technology, a key pillar of the manufacturing sector, remained under pressure and was not expected to recover until later in the year.

"Some weakness in the IT-related industries is expected, due in part to lingering excess inventories in the semiconductor segment," it said.

"Overall growth should pick up in the latter half of the year, reflecting the recovery in the IT-related industries, which will reinforce the steady growth momentum in the non-IT sectors."

The Southeast Asian island of 4.5 million people is heavily dependent on exports, particularly of computer chips, computer parts and disk drives, making it vulnerable to consumer demand in its main export markets, Europe and the United States.

Two weeks ago, Singapore reported better-than-expected annualised growth of 12.8 percent in the second quarter, prompting economists to raise their full-year growth forecasts.

The government is expected to follow suit, lifting its forecast range of 5-7 percent closer to last year's robust 7.9 percent expansion.

The MAS also said that overall price pressures are "expected to be well-contained in 2007" but that it would be on the alert to spot rising prices.

"With the economy continuing to record broad-based growth at this fairly late stage of the expansion cycle, the MAS will maintain its vigilance against incipient inflationary pressures, including possible upward pressures on business costs," it said.

It stuck to its 2007 inflation forecast of 0.5-1.5 percent and said the increase in goods and services tax to 7 percent from 5 percent on July 1 would add between 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points to consumer price inflation this year and next.

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