From the BBC:
Singapore’s economy shrank by 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months, its biggest quarterly contraction on record.
Official estimates also showed the economy had shrunk by 11.5% compared with the same period a year ago.
The government now expects the country’s GDP to contract by between 6% and 9% this year, much more than the previous estimate of between 2% and 5%.
Singapore has been hit by a fall in exports during the economic downturn.
Sharp falls
The country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said the economy’s performance was much worse than expected.
“MTI’s earlier forecast had factored in the likelihood of a weak first quarter, but the advance estimates indicate that actual GDP growth will undershoot earlier expectations by a significant margin,” it said.
Manufacturing output fell by 29% in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, pulled down by sharp falls in exports, which fell by an estimated 17% in March.
And the prospects for any quick recovery appear slim.
“With most of Singapore’s key trading partners still in recession, the manufacturing sector will remain weak for the rest of the year,” the ministry said.
Tai Hui at Standard Chartered said: “We still expect to see some signs of stabilisation at the end of 2009, although admittedly mild.”
Earlier this year, Singapore announced a $13bn (£8.6bn) stimulus package to try to boost economic activity.
—-
Read also: Singapore devalues its fading dollar by The Telegraph.
And: Singapore suffers record contraction by The Financial Times.
The Straits Times: Not as bad as it looks.
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
If you like this article, please consider a small donation to help theonlinecitizen.com stay alive. Please note that we can only accept donations from Singaporeans. Thank you for your assistance.Do you have a flair for writing? Volunteer with us. Email us your full name and contact details to theonlinecitizen@gmail.com
We hope a government that won the past 11 elections by presenting a platform of steady economic growth and better Singapore life, be held accoutable of it.
Singapore suffered the most compared to other export oriented economies.
We also made many hasty investment by people’s money
But Singaporean have short memory, come next election, a garden, a playground, a 2 months conversevancy charges rebate will again give this ruling party a landslide of >60% vote.
Thanks to our garhmen (and their stupid “GDP growth at all cost” policy), S’pore is the FIRST Asian country to go into recession. Now our GDP decline is the MOST severe amongst Asian countries!!
Clap Clap Clap! wakeup call for ALL!
When is our million dollar ministers going to cut their pay drastically due to drastical fall in GDP? Didn’t they said their salary is tied to the GDP of Singapore? Let’s hope to hear more about their perks linked to GDP since many Singaporeans have already suffered wage losses and foreigners are depressing it further.
aiyoyo
we’ve tons of super scale paid elites,
just look at the state we’re in now?
why this is happening? something amiss?
another sad story…
aiyoyo
David, didn’t you know that our dear PM has cut his pay by a hefty 19%. From the information i get from the web, it seems like he has cut his pay from $3.1million to $3.04million.
If a wok salesman tells me he gives me a discount of 19% from $31 to $30.4; I will give him a tight slap…. Maybe two tight slaps lah.
Personally I cannot vote for those whose math is not very good to run our country. I will make sure I cast my vote of no confidence during the next election.
We can always trust our nation-building press to make bad news sound good.
Well done, Straits Times!
In this economic gloom, record unemployment, record GDP falls and so on, you are doing us all such a huge favour by reporting the good sides of all these!
I am very impressed by your professionalism and your astute ability to use words to maximum effect!
6) Vote of no confidence on April 15th, 2009 1.15 pm
The PM’s salary is $3.04 after a 19% cut. This means his salary before the cut would be $3.753 million.
Remember, the economists being quoted were from HSBC and OCBC i.e. private sector. When the March numbers come out and the figures get revised, we will see if the ST actually got it right.
The government now expects the country’s GDP to contract by between 6% and 9% this year…. – writer.
Shoudn’t it read minus 6% to minus9%?
Hi fellow readers,
According to MM Lee “Singaporeans shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking we’re first world.”
That statement alone pretty much characterizes what we should be expecting from a third world country- inconsistent GDP and an ever widening income gap.
You people are such cynics. Except (7)ST Observer. I salute you.
The ST only prints truths and facts ok.
I for one eagerly wait every week to digest the words of wisdom from the doyen of objective journalism – Ms Chua Mui Hoong.
This article is no different. The ST calls it correctly.
THE ECONOMY IS NOT AS BAD AS IT LOOKS!
Hurray!
Look at the lines –
SINGAPORE on Tuesday released the worst set of economic data in the nation’s history
exports collapsed in the first quarter by more than expected
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) yesterday said the economy shrank in the first quarter by a drastic 11.5 per cent over the previous year and 20 per cent over the previous quarter – both record declines.
I feel so confident after reading these lines.
With such great performances, i move to increase the wages of our Ministers, Just in case Lehmann Brothers come to poach away our top talent (as suggested by PM Lee).
Curse the jealous westerners who crave our success.
Woa woa….who was the one who said during an interview with BBC justifying that their high pay is reasonable due to the amount of GDP involved??? Now that the GDP growth is contracting at such a rate, it really makes it sound so hollow….imagine…paying millions to manage billions, and in the end leading to contraction….what a great genius…and he still has the audacity to say something like this…well, he is LHL, so i guess it is normal…lol
hm.. this is how they justify their million dollar salary… clap clap clap….!!!!!
I googled the GDP for other countries in our region and found the following ranking in GDP,
(1) Indonesia’s GDP rank 21 in the world.
(2) Thailand rank 35
(3) Malaysia rank 41
(4) Philipines rank 46
(5) Singapore rank 52
Our Singapore ministers shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking we are first world and pay themselves the first world’s salary.
I think we should let the economy fall till all our reserves which have not
depleted being depleted and better still if LKY is not lower into the grave which
will show all Singaporean the true capabilities of this government and not always
depend on Obama.
15) OIC on April 15th, 2009 5.29 pm
OIC – GDP may not be a very good gauge. GDP per Capita will tell you Singapore’s ranking will be higher than any of those countries.
All these salary paid should be refunded because of empty promises made in the past. We hope the money can than used to help people who are affected by our govt empty promises of golden period and swiss standard of living. Another worst promise is to give Singaporean priority but foreigners took the cake instead,. We want refund of salaries paid to the ministers, they simply cannot justify that sum of salaries otherwise we call it corruption.
You all don’t know mah!
“The bigger the lies, the more people will believe”
How to be Swiss standard of living, at least they know how to made good watch.
When we made computer chips, we lose to Taiwan and Korea!
As a Singaporean, I pray Singapore must fail in all aspects, so that there will truly be a change.
the saying “those who laugh best laugh last” I remembered we were laughing at our ASEAN neighbours during the Asian Financial Crisis and we escaped ……now what happens? Our neighbours and maybe the world now laughing at…….We talk so much about the IR??? IN RECESSION…what a joke!
/// 15) OIC on April 15th, 2009 5.29 pm
(1) Indonesia’s GDP rank 21 in the world.
(2) Thailand rank 35
(3) Malaysia rank 41
(4) Philipines rank 46
(5) Singapore rank 52
Our Singapore ministers shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking we are first world and pay themselves the first world’s salary. ///
OIC – you don’t see. You will also discover that the GDP of China and India are relatively large. You should google GDP per capita instead.
Imagine your household comprises 10 people and your combined household income is $10,000 per month. Then imagine your neighbour who is a bachelor living alone and he earns $8,000 a month. Do you think you are “richer” than your neighbour?
# 21 T & fairplay…
I think OIC spoke about the absolute amount in GDP and compared it to the salary these PAP ministers were collecting….
since Singapore GDP is smaller then around our region…however you are right, compared to GDP per capita…..we can….or might be greater…but that also has many correction in itself….
Our income distribution ain’t excatly great in equality……(gini co-efficient)….
take your example—10 people in 1 household getting $10,000 and the other 1 getting $8,000….(assuming only 11 people live in the country)
GDP per capita is $18,000/ 11= $1636…..however…we know that the other 10 people are only getting $1,000…..
See GDP per capita can be misleading as well…..
Then to know that we are richer then our neighours we have to look at Purchasing Power Parity…check it out….
I don’t one to run an econs tut..ok
If everybody loses jobs then SOCIAL WELFARE will have to come to life and revive survival of a nation!
6) Vote of no confidence
Man your Maths really cannot make it. A change of 3.1 million to 3.04 million is a 1.9% drop, not 19%. No wonder the economy is in trouble. You guys can’t calculate yield properlly.
12) Ohnani
You are right. The ST headline is correct.
THE ECONOMY IS NOT AS BAD AS IT LOOKS! – IT’S WORSE!
Too bad the part after the hyphen was dropped. It was dropped for two reasons. 1) they ran out of space. 2) Who ever heard of a hyphen in a headline? That’s just stupid.
Too bad Ho Chin quit Temasek Holdings… can’t hold her accountable… oh well….
So this is what Singaporeans get after they decided to pay themselves 88% more. Perhaps the economy will roar if we can forced them (wistful thinking) to cut their renumerations by 88%. More pay = poor performance.
Our First World Leaders have cunningly tied their ANNUAL salary, not MONTHLY salary to our GDP. i.e. they merely receive less bonus, and then claim they took less money.
Of course, their pensions are unaffected since it’s tied to monthy salary.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
can’t hold her accountable… oh well….
usa guy is her scapegoat, u can slipper slap his foto
aiyoyo
looking at GDP ranking, SHOCKED!!!
1st world yet lower than indonesia OMG!!!
really CANT see logic in this country ANYMORE,
1 more sad story
aiyoyo
Obnani,
I like your sarcasm and ridicule. You are comparable with Mr Lucky Tan.
Can make me smile even on the most depressing subject
for those who wish that sg will fail badly so people will wake up…
have you wondered if you’ll survive that failure? how do you know you won’t be hit?? you’re not an omnipotent bystander here. (unless you’re living overseas with entire family)
and even if sg fails, are you sure sinkees will vote out the PAP??
When oil increase, the transport fare increase as those clowns indicate that oil price is a major factor for fare hike. But when oil price drop significantly, the same clowns says that oil is not linked directly to the fare.
When GDP grows, the same clowns say that their pay is tied to GDP, and when GDP increases, their pay increase. But GDP grow to all time low, the same clowns now indicate that their pay is nothing to do with the GDP, it is something to do with their pathetic talent !
Singaporeans have been taken as great fool by these self-serving Shole all these while !
There seems to be two societies here is Singapore.
A comfortable group , machinery of / by the PAP and government and another working and struggling to be “taxed” by them. This is the majority.
The government from my mind has never been able to show us and at that incompetent
of a ideas for a solid economy, since the heydays of companies investing here.
From feedback with business people, there is a hesitancy of companies moving their operations here, basically high cost. In fact some are moving out already.
What the government is good at is creating growth out of taxing the people.
No prices for guessing why they want to increase the population to six million.
What I’m cheesed off , is we locals are suffering from their policies. The value of our asserts has simply gone down the drain. Like many of you also expressed, a life of endless owing to them, of the unlucky who paid high prices for their HDB and private properties.
There seems to be no sense at how this country is run and managed. When the time comes again, I hope this time Singaporean will be brave to vote the current government out.
How come HDB prices going higher and higher $730k? Something wrong somewhere. Everything goes up like a bullet train but economy is going reverse?
Our first class team cannot prevent such fall? Really? Then why first class? It is time they be paid economy class.
No matter how good acadamically one was, it is no garantee that one is also good in all other subjects. A good or great leader is not neccessay a great scholar as well. The recession is just the begining for more hard time to come. The general consensus among economist is that the recession will last until the end of the year and Western economy will start to pick up. But for us in Sinkapore, we have another hidden issue that had not be widely publicise. The opening of the Northern passage through Russia Arctic between Europe and Asia cutting the journey by 25%. This will have a great impact on our entreport shipping businese. All these coming at the same time, on top of competition from our neigbours and with no easy option or opportunity to seek a replacement industry to provide employment for those that are going to loose their jobs in the shipping industry, time will be truly hard for the unemployed. The gahment must seriously consider some form of social assistence to help those unemployed although the word social welfare is a cold and dirty word within the ruling party , they must overcome their aversion for the good of the country. USA is prepared to offer food voucher to those poor American and there is reason why Sinkapore should not follow by offering social assistence to our own poor.