Singapore's annual inflation rate rose to a new 26-year high of 7.5 percent in April as food, housing and transportation costs soared and is now a risk to the economy, the government said on Friday. Food prices alone rose 8.5 percent, transportation and communication were 7.0 percent higher and housing costs became 11.8 percent more expensive, the statistics department said. It said April's inflation...
Singapore Economy
Inflation is a more serious problem for Singapore and other Asian economies than an economic slowdown in the United States, according to HSBC's senior Asian economist, Robert Prior-Wandesforde. He said if inflation continues to push upwards, Asia could find itself facing an economic slowdown next year. His comment came at a seminar organised by the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce. Inflation...
Accountants think that Singapore is up for challenges this year, according to a survey by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS). 64 percent of the respondents said their outlook for the economy ranged from neutral to pessimistic. Inflationary pressure was one of the top reasons for the dim economic outlook among Singapore accountants, with 90 percent of the respondents...
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore will continue to develop the financial sector as more activities are being moved to the city-state. Mr Lee, who was speaking to 120 bankers at the hour-long Thomson Reuters Dialogue on Tuesday, added that more would be done to ease capacity constraints, such as the crunch in office space and accommodation. The financial sector in Singapore grew by some 17.5...
Events such as the Grand Prix are new growth drivers to help cushion the slowdown: Analysts THE Singapore economy is in for at least a year-long slowdown, but there will still be growth, according to most economists surveyed by Today. This is the U-shaped scenario painted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his May Day Rally speech on Thursday, which predicts that it could be next year before the...
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has said it expects inflation, now at a 26-year high of 6.7 percent, to cool to an average 4 percent in the second half of this year. Singapore's central bank also said on Tuesday that economic growth will slow in 2008, but the expansion will likely remain at a healthy level even under a tighter monetary policy. "Full-year gross domestic growth of between 4%-6%...
As inflation in March hit 6.7 per cent, marking yet another 26-year high, businesses are beginning to feel the pain. For the salaried employee, this raises the worry of whether employers will resort to reducing wages in order to cut costs. “Particularly for most Singapore companies, wage is the most important element of cost,” said HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde. A wage cut, or even a...
The Singapore dollar hit a record high against the greenback on Wednesday after inflation in the city-state rose and amid fears of a US recession. The Singapore unit hit a peak of 1.3463 to one US dollar before falling back to 1.3480 in afternoon trade. The euro breached 1.60 US dollars for the first time Tuesday on renewed jitters about the US economy, but eased back in Asian trade on Wednesday, dealers...
Singapore's annual inflation was 6.7 percent last month, the highest in 26 years, the Department of Statistics said on Wednesday. It said the consumer price index was boosted by higher costs of food, transport, communications and housing. The March consumer price index figure was down 0.1 percent from February's figure, the department added. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the index was 0.3 percent...
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...