Since both the “Know Singapore” and “The Singapore way” threads got shut down I have nowhere to put news about Singapore, except by starting a new thread.
PS> Those who have no interest in knowing anything about what is happening in Singapore, past or present, are free to not open any links, or even to block this thread from their feed.
Who cares!!!
So sorry to have posted something you don’t care about.
There are others here who have been outside the GoM. They may understand and appreciate a joke.
PS> There are a lot of posts on here that I’m not interested in. I just don’t open those.
Highly recommended!!
I have always found Singapore fascinating. Lived there off and on while working there. It’s a technocracy that is constantly evolving but their dedication to innovation and the ability to maintain a relatively peaceful multicultural society is admirable. Singapore put education as a top priority and at the time tolerated no corruption. Compare the progress of Singapore to the progress of the Philippines to get an idea. Both were decimated in WW II. Singapore with no natural resources compared to the Philippines, which has many natural resources, is now far ahead by every measure.
I too have a lot of admiration for the Singaporean culture & governance. But comparing the advancement of Singapore to The Philippines after WW2 is like comparing apples to hundreds of orange groves spread over 7,641 islands. Warren Buffet has claimed for years he could make a 50% annual return on $1 million dollars compared to the single digit returns on his current $200 billion portfolio. It mostly has to do with scale. Singapore has used it to their advantage & has done a damn good job with it for sure.
All it took was a benevolent dictator with a robust legal and banking system at the cross roads of the world.
The trouble is we all fancy ourselves as that dictator but history shows very few.
Contrary to some pessimistic estimate:
The only scary part of Singapore is this:
( now 3rd most indebted gov on the planet as % of GDP)
Cant believe they said this but
they say they need it for CPF meaning all that money the gov has borrowed from the wage earners and return it on retirement with 4.5% interest, are they actually saying we havnt made enough to pay that back?
So we had to sell some debt to fund the underfunded?
Strange how the interest bill never comes into it…
Oh my God, Singapore is sinking in a sea of debt!!!
How does it’s credit rating look?:
Can you find anything about the interest bill every month thats the issue?
Must be several billion a month?
This need to borrow has only been required for the last few decades as in the 90’s debt went to zero.
Singapore is a city state not a country. So smaller jumps make a huge difference.
LKY certainly did the hard graft to build it up but now due to the trading economy and having to lift the SGD to suit that business model its made it so expensive there are not many businesses that can survive the competition.
I dont see borrowing more and more money a sign it makes money any more?
The ex PM said last year no GLC makes any money like they did so huge source of funding gone.
They are living on the net interest from those investments which contributes nearly half the gov income. Unfortunately the ROI is very low
At least the debt is mostly internal so they can print it…
Sounds good, not sure how it helps Singapore less stops a few companies leaving further away?
News is too much congestion on the border crossing, low skill set, too hard to get work permits
lets see what changes
New rail link will help lots of foot traffic but the Malaysian side the station is right in the middle of a very congested part of town…
The rail went in to help get Malaysian day workers into Singapore
Maybe it will be the reverse soon, lol
The other news is there is something in the water as news very unlike modern Singapore
Getting back to the old days
the drug arrests are almost every other day.
Murders by people known to each other almost every other day
yikes
Still safe to send you 5yr to school on the bus, thats nice to see
Oh my God. Singapore is spending Billions on interest rate payment a MONTH!!!
From info freely available the interest payment is S$ 19,9 Bn/Yr.:
Sounds bad!!! Are you the only one who worry?:
Read more at: Singapore Might Have Large Gross Debt But Their Credit Rating Is AAA. Find Out Why - Commodity.com
Now to some good news. Tuas Mega Port is featured on the MegaBuilds Channel:
PS> I’m sure you can find something wrong with this project as well.
commodity.com has the old figure debt is 50% larger now at $1.5 trillion
I thought you read the news?
Last Updated: January 16, 2025
Read more at: Singapore Might Have Large Gross Debt But Their Credit Rating Is AAA. Find Out Why - Commodity.com
The gov muddies the water on internal and external debt
They used to say zero external debt that wasnt bank deposits but dont seem to say that any more
Internal debt was also zero a few decades ago
Plan is for the future. Here is history:
We will need to wait to end of this quarter for all the online figures to be updated
The sg gov did publish debt to gdp will be 222%, moving up the list to 3rd in the world
Sounds scary but its worse as Singapore gdp is massively skewed due to oil trading so it is in reality way higher as a percent of real gdp as there isnt a mine or exporting farm here to create that high figure
