Dr Tony Tan, the deputy chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), has clarified that recent comments made on the world facing its worst recession in 30 years is just one of three scenarios GIC is contemplating. It is not the GIC's forecast for the global economy. The other two are an optimistic scenario where there is a recession in the US or globally, with an end to the...
Global Economy
In light of the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States, major global agencies have relooked their forecasts for this year. According to the latest World Economic Report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting a 3.7 percent growth in the global economy this year - down from a 4.9 percent expansion in 2007. The IMF has also downgraded its growth projections for Singapore by...
Asia will continue to attract strong investments this year despite the uncertain global economic outlook, according to some participants at the 9th Annual Investment Management Association Singapore Conference on Tuesday. They expect investment vehicles such as venture funds and private equity to pick up in 2008. Asia has seen a sharp change - from a positive global economic outlook in 2007 to one of...
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged Singaporeans to brace themselves for further uncertainties. In his Lunar New Year message, Mr Lee said the "Year of the Rat" begins under challenging circumstances. But he added that there's reason to remain confident because Singapore is in a strong position to weather any storm. Turbulence in the financial markets worldwide has shaken consumer and investor...
The global market panic driving Tuesday’s United States Federal Reserve rate cut is rooted in the still controversial idea that the US economy has slipped into a recession. Many market participants now take it as an article of faith that the US economy is, or will soon be, in a contractionary phase of economic activity. Some even argue that as long as it “feels” like a recession, it is one. But that...
Asia is not likely to suffer a downturn over the next two years if the US does not fall into a full blown recession, Lehman Brothers forecast in its outlook for 2008. Investors all across Asia may be nervous about the outlook for the US economy, but the financial services firm is taking a positive stance. Lehman Brothers' global chief economist Paul Sheard said, "A lot of people, of course, are focusing...
Asian economies face a challenging year in 2008 but as a group they are still expected to show growth of 10 to 12 percent. This is the forecast from HSBC in its latest report on the region. However, a recession in the US could knock off a few percentage points off Singapore's economic growth. With a US recession on the horizon and the US sub-prime mortgage crisis still taking its toll, HSBC is...
FUND managers across the world have turned “super-bearish” over the last month, abandoning hope that Europe and Asia can escape contagion from the United States housing crisis. A Merrill Lynch survey found that a fifth of big investors now expect an outright global recession, an occurrence not seen since the 1930s. Some think the world is already in recession. “The period of denial may be...
IT was the “goblin” that wreaked havoc on markets the world over but come Oct 31, investors may be celebrating Halloween for more reasons than one. The goblin that is the impact of the United States sub-prime mortgage problems could go away as early as then, and growth would return by year-end in time for Christmas, said Mr Ken Fisher, CEO of Fisher Investment. Saying the sub-prime spook had been...