Charting Singapore s Economy, 1Q 2016 Publication Date: December 8 th, 2015 Number of pages: 58 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) You are free to: Share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Under the following terms: Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. ASK THE EDITOR Charting Economy team consists of editors, analysts, and researchers. For any questions and comments about this report, you can contact the chief editor directly at editor@chartingeconomy.com. DISCLAIMER The facts of this report are believed to be correct at the time of publication but cannot be guaranteed. Please note that the findings, conclusions and recommendations that Charting Economy delivers will be based on information gathered in good faith from both primary and secondary sources, whose accuracy we are not always in a position to guarantee. As such Charting Economy can accept no liability whatever for actions taken based on any information that may subsequently prove to be incorrect. About This Report This report is designed to chart out the economic outlook of Singapore on a quarterly basis. It is ideal for strategic management and corporate planning functions in companies operating or looking to get into the most advanced economy in ASEAN. www.chartingeconomy.com Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 2
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Singapore Official name: Republic of Singapore Brief history Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe. Geography Population and society Government Area: 697 sq km (#192 in the world) Land boundaries: Coastline 193 km Land use: arable land: 0.89% permanent crops: 0.14% other: 98.97% Irrigated land: N/A Freshwater withdrawal per capita: 81.97 cu m/yr Natural resources: fish, deep water ports Population: 5,674,472 (July 2015 est., #114 in the world) Ethnic group (2013): Chinese 74.2%, Malay 13.3%, Indian 9.2%, other 3.3% Language (2010): Mandarin (official) 36.3%, English (official) 29.8%, Malay (official) 11.9%, Hokkien 8.1%, Tamil (official) 4.4%, Cantonese 4.1%, Teochew 3.2%, other Indian languages 1.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.1%, other 1.1% Religions (2010): Buddhist 33.9%, Muslim 14.3%, Taoist 11.3%, Catholic 7.1%, Hindu 5.2%, other Christian 11%, other 0.7%, none 16.4% (2010 est.) Working age population (15-64 yr): 78.0% Population growth rate: 1.89% (2015 est.) Government type: parliamentary republic Capital: Singapore Currency: Singapore Dollar (SGD) Chief of state: President Tony TAN Keng Yam Head of government: Prime Minister LEE Hsien Loong Cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister; Cabinet responsible to Parliament Election: president elected by popular vote for six-year term (next to be held by August 2017) legislative election last held on 11 September 2015 (next to be held in 2020) General Information This section provides a snap shot and acts as a country fact sheet. Readers will find brief history as well as information on geography, population, society and government. Source: CIA World factbook www.chartingeconomy.com Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 4
Singapore is the fourth largest economy in ASEAN with USD 308 billion GDP in 2014 2014 GDP USD billion, Market Exchange Rate United States China Japan Germany United Kingdom France ASEAN Brazil Italy India Russia Canada Australia Korea Spain Mexico 4,602 3,874 2,950 2,834 2,518 2,347 2,148 2,051 1,861 1,785 1,443 1,410 1,407 1,291 10,357 17,348 Indonesia Thailand Malaysia Singapore Philippines Vietnam* Myanmar Brunei Cambodia* Laos* 888.6 404.8 338.1 307.9 284.6 185.9 63.1 17.1 16.6 11.7 Note: (*) IMF Estimate Measuring the size of an economy Size of any economy is usually measured by calculating its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. To compare GDP internationally, there is a need to convert value in local currencies to one main currency, normally USD. There are two popular exchange rate to be used. The first one is the official exchange rate for that particular period. The second one is the so called Purchasing Power Parity exchange rate, which takes into account the difference in living expenses between countries. The first method is more popular in comparing the size of each economy. Size of Singapore s economy Using the market exchange rate method, Singapore s GDP is around USD 308 billion in 2014, slightly lower than that of Malaysia. It is ranked as the fourth largest economy in ASEAN. Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database Oct 2015 www.chartingeconomy.com Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 6
Restrictive labor regulations is by far the most problematic factor for doing business in Singapore The most problematic factors for doing business in Singapore % of responses* Restrictive labor regulations Insufficient capacity to innovate Inflation Inadequately educated workforce Poor work ethic in labor force Access to financing Inadequate supply of infrastructure Complexity of tax regulations Tax rates Inefficient government bureaucracy Foreign currency regulations Policy instability Corruption Poor public health Crime and theft 6.0 4.6 3.6 2.5 2.2 2.1 2.0 1.0 0.7 0.2 0.1 10.6 16.3 18.4 29.7 The most problematic factors for doing business As part of its Global Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum also conducts its annual executive opinion survey which in 2015 involves over 14,000 respondents from around the world. Part of the survey is the issue of problematic factors for doing business in a given country. From the given list of factors, respondents were asked to select the five most problematic for doing business in their country and to rank them between 1 (most problematic) and 5. The bars in the figure show the responses weighted according to their rankings. The most problematic factors for doing business in Singapore Restrictive labor regulations is by far the most problematic factor for doing business in Singapore. Government instability/coups 0.0 Note: (*) From the list of factors above, respondents were asked to select the five most problematic for doing business in their country and to rank them between 1 (most problematic) and 5. The bars in the figure show the responses weighted according to their rankings 19 Source: The Global Competitiveness Report 2015 2016, World Economic Forum www.chartingeconomy.com Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
In 3Q15, Singapore s economy grew 1.9%, its lowest growth in 3 years Real GDP growth Year-on-year, 3Q15 India 7.4% Singapore s Real GDP growth Year-on-year, last 8 quarters China Vietnam Philippines Malaysia Indonesia Thailand South Korea Hong Kong US Singapore 6.9% 6.8% 6.0% 4.7% 4.7% 2.9% 2.7% 2.3% 2.2% 1.9% 5.4% 4.6% 2.3% 2.8% 2.1% 2.7% 2.0% 1.9% GDP growth in the latest quarter Real GDP growth in the latest quarter from major economies in the world sorted from highest to lowest. GDP growth for Singapore s economy in 3Q15 In 3Q15, Singapore s economy grew 1.9% year-on-year, its lowest growth rate in 3 years. Euro area 1.6% South Africa 1.0% Japan 1.0% Taiwan -0.6% Russia Brazil -4.1% -4.5% 4Q13 1Q14 2Q14 3Q14 4Q14 1Q15 2Q15 3Q15 Source: The Economist, Department of Statistics, Singapore; Charting Economy analysis www.chartingeconomy.com Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 32
Singapore is the easiest place in ASEAN to start a business Starting a business rank Economy Rank DTF* Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) Paid in min. capital (% of income per capita) New Zealand 1 100.0 1.0 0.5 0.3 0.0 Hong Kong SAR, China 4 98.1 2.0 1.5 1.2 0.0 Singapore 10 96.5 3.0 2.5 0.6 0.0 Australia 11 96.5 3.0 2.5 0.7 0.0 Malaysia 14 95.3 3.0 4.0 6.7 0.0 Korea, Rep. 23 94.4 3.0 4.0 14.5 0.0 Brunei Darussalam 74 87.6 7.0 14.0 1.2 0.0 Japan 81 86.3 8.0 10.2 7.5 0.0 Thailand 96 85.1 6.0 27.5 6.4 0.0 Timor Leste 104 83.6 4.0 9.0 0.3 156.6 Vietnam 119 81.3 10.0 20.0 4.9 0.0 China 136 77.5 11.0 31.4 0.7 0.0 Lao PDR 153 73.8 6.0 73.0 4.9 0.0 India 155 73.6 12.9 29.0 13.5 0.0 Myanmar 160 70.0 11.0 13.0 97.1 0.0 Philippines 165 68.6 16.0 29.0 16.1 3.3 Indonesia 173 66.0 13.0 47.8 19.9 31.0 Cambodia 180 58.1 7.0 87.0 78.7 24.1 Central African Republic 189 31.4 10.0 22.0 204.0 540.1 Starting a Business This topic measures the paid-in minimum capital requirement, number of procedures, time and cost for a small- to medium-sized limited liability company to start up and formally operate. To make the data comparable across 189 economies, Doing Business uses a standardized business that is 100% domestically owned, has start-up capital equivalent to 10 times income per capita, engages in general industrial or commercial activities and employs between 10 and 50 people one month after the commencement of operations, all of whom are domestic nationals. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2015. Starting a Business in Singapore Singapore is the easiest place in ASEAN to start a business with very low cost and short amount of time. Note: (*) An economy s distance to frontier score is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the worst performance and 100 the frontier www.chartingeconomy.com Source: Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency Charting Economy CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 48
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