I apply skepticism when coming across reports as the ones cited below because it is difficult to ascertain what the real economic growth is and how much of the figure are due to inflation of the money supply -- which has expanded in Singapore.
Nonetheless, the economic growth figures are impressive. There is virtually no unemployment, savings rates are high and businesses have lots of free cash flow.
Of course, economic success does have some social costs -- a vocal sector of the population is feeling the pressures of open competition and of course have reacted badly to this blaming 'the government' for 'hard times'. Most of these folks unsurprisingly are economically illiterate (including those who purport to be 'trained' economists), and have an in-built intellectual bias which is anti capitalist.
The Monetary Authority Of Singapore (MAS) did reign in some of the excess liquidity earlier in 2010 -- aka mopping up some of the stimulus money, and as far as today's central banks go, the MAS -- at least for the moment -- are among the best behaved out of a bunch of legalised counterfeiters.
Report: Singapore economy grew 14.7% in 2010 - Channel NewsAsia
Nonetheless, the economic growth figures are impressive. There is virtually no unemployment, savings rates are high and businesses have lots of free cash flow.
Of course, economic success does have some social costs -- a vocal sector of the population is feeling the pressures of open competition and of course have reacted badly to this blaming 'the government' for 'hard times'. Most of these folks unsurprisingly are economically illiterate (including those who purport to be 'trained' economists), and have an in-built intellectual bias which is anti capitalist.
The Monetary Authority Of Singapore (MAS) did reign in some of the excess liquidity earlier in 2010 -- aka mopping up some of the stimulus money, and as far as today's central banks go, the MAS -- at least for the moment -- are among the best behaved out of a bunch of legalised counterfeiters.
Report: Singapore economy grew 14.7% in 2010 - Channel NewsAsia
Related story (TIME Magazine):Singapore: The Hottest (Little) Economy in the World
Download:
- SingStat Economic Data for 31-12-2010 (PDF)
- Singapore Money Supply Data (PNG) excerpted from Yearbook of Statistics Singapore
No comments:
Post a Comment