Singapore becomes the first Asian victim of recession

Carrie Reinheimer October 10, 2008 3:39 pm

While the American economy might be looking up after the large bailout that was passed in the past weeks, the Singapore government is not looking the same way. Now Singapore might be facing the same troubles that we as Americans are facing and the rest of the world. They have been able to stay out of it this long but they could not hold on any longer. “Singapore has become the first Asian economy to fall into recession, analysts said yesterday, after the government revised downward its full-year growth estimate and eased monetary policy for the first time in years.” The Ministry of Trade and Industry lowered the city-state’s full-year growth forecast to around 3 percent, citing a slowdown in the global economy and key domestic sectors. The Singapore economy has weakened over the course of 2008, alongside an escalation in the turmoil in financial markets and a more severe deceleration in global economic activity. “The risks to external demand conditions continue to be on the downside and a more severe global downturn cannot be discounted,” the bank said. Singapore is Southeast Asia’s wealthiest economy in terms of GDP per capita, but is heavily dependent on trade. This makes it sensitive to hiccups in developed economies, particularly key export markets the US and Europe. Compared with the third quarter of last year, the ministry said Singapore’s economy contracted by 0.5 percent in real terms, against the 0.8 percent expansion foreseen in the Dow Jones poll.
So another country is facing the same things that we are now. For this to be the first Asian country to go into recession this is a big deal. I hope that this does not lead into a domino affect where are the other Asian countries going into recession to. Maybe since it is happening now, after everyone else they can see how we are fixing our problem and get out of it quick. They could look for the same signs that we went through and kind of figure it out from there. Eventually the whole world will be back to where it needs to be.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/10/11/2003425613