Singapore International Political Economy

The Singapore economy saw inflation slow for a second month in a row according to Bloomberg.

Singapore’s Department of Statistics stated that the consumer price index moved to 6.4 percent as opposed to gaining 6.5 percent a year ago.

Specific Singapore economic inflation data in August year over year include the following:

• Singapore food prices rose 8.4 percent
• Singapore transport and communication costs rose 2 percent
• Singapore housing costs rose 12.8 percent

Singapore trade of non-oil exports is down 14 percent year over year in August according to International Herald Tribune.

The Singapore trade news shows clear signs that the demand for consumer electronic goods is waning and will likely continue to impact the Singapore economy.

Nonetheless, the drop in Singapore trade of non-oil exports in inline with Singapore government expectations that Singapore economic growth would fall between 4 and 5 percent.

Caterpillar Inc., US based heavy equipment maker, announced plans to invest in Singapore by opening a remanufacturing facility according to AP.

The Singapore investment by Caterpillar expands the company’s global remanufacturing presence in which it has seventeen other facilities in locations such as China, Europe and Mexico.

The move by Caterpillar is geared to increase capacity to fulfill a dramatic increase in Asian demand. The facility is set for a 2010 fully operational target date. [Read more →]

Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, received the go ahead to invest n additional $3.4 billion in Merrill Lynch by US anti-trust regulators according to AFP.

This initial Singapore investment by Temasek Temasek help a 9 percent stake in Merrill Lynch and the additional stake will raise it to 14 percent. [Read more →]

GIC, the Singapore government sovereign wealth fund investment arm, plans to take a 10 percent stake in Arcil, Asset Reconstruction Company of India, according to The Economic Times.

The Singapore investment deal is subject to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval and Arcil’s CEO S Khasnobis Arcil declined to comment on the move by GIC.

Arcil is India’s largest asset reconstruction company otherwise known as an ARC. [Read more →]

Inflation in the Singapore economy slowed to 6.5 percent in July according to AFP.

The Singapore inflation rate is down from its July high of 7.5 percent and its 26 year peak reported in April, May and June and is offering some relief to what the Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong considers Singapore’s most pressing issue.

Singapore’s central bank raised its 2008 inflation forecast for the Singapore economy late last month from 5 to 6 percent to 6 to 7 percent. [Read more →]

Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC), the Singapore government’s sovereign wealth, has announced its new Singapore investment to purchase a 20 percent stake in US based Oncor Electric Delivery Co. according to Bloomberg.

The Singapore investment in Oncore is worth $1.25 billion and is in conjunction with Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers).

Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) is a $100 billion Singapore investment fund and was founded by the Singapore government in 1981. [Read more →]

A Singapore bank warns of slower Singapore economic growth for the future as lending profits shrank in Q2 according to AFP.

The warning for the Singapore economy comes as the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) saw net profits sink 20 percent.

Nonetheless, DBS Group, Southeast Asia’s largest lender, stated its profits are up 16 percent year-over-year. [Read more →]

India’s top private electricity generator, Tata Power Ltd., has announced plans to invest in Singapore’s largest power utility Senoko Power Ltd. according to Bloomberg.

The Singapore investment by Tata Power is estimated at $3 billion and would gain Tata access to of 3,300 megawatts of generation capacity.

Nonetheless, Senoko Power is being shortlisted by Temasek Holdings with the likes of Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings, France’s GDF Suez, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and Malaysia’s YTL Power Bhd also showing interest in the Singapore investment. [Read more →]

The Singapore economy saw a rise in the Singapore Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in July according to Forbes.

The Singapore Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose form 50.6 points in June to 51.6 points in July with the electronics sectors rising from 51.1 point to 51.7 point respectively indicated the Singapore economy is expanding. [Read more →]

Temasek Holdings, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, has confirmed its Singapore investment in Merrill Lynch according to Reuters.

The commitment includes a $2.5 billion re-set payment to Temasek in addition to the $3.4 billion that was originally offered as a Temasek Singapore investment in 2007. [Read more →]

Sinochem Corp, the China state-owned chemicals and fertilizer company, announced it plans to invest in Singapore’s GMG Global according to Quamnet.

The Singapore investment deal would involve a 51 percent stake purchase yet the dollar amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The Singapore government and China’s National Development and Reform Commission have already approved the Singapore investment by Sinochem.

Applied Materials, the US based microchip equipment maker, plans to invest in Singapore according to The New York Times.

The Singapore investment with go towards the building a plant worth as much as $70 million for a late 2009 launch and will account for as much as 40 percent of Applied Material’s sales.

The move fits well into the Singapore government’s plan to position Singapore as a leader in higher value-added Nano manufacturing technology. [Read more →]

The Singapore economy only grew 3.2 percent after growing 6.7 percent three months prior according to Bloomberg.

Key drivers impacting the slower growth in the Singapore economy include 26 year high inflation and continued sluggishness in manufacturing.

While the Singapore economic outlook continues to [Read more →]

Sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, has announced it will invest in India’s Reid & Taylor $209 million according to Businessweek.

The GIC Singapore investment with take more than a 25% stake in Reid & Taylor and continues to diversify the Singapore sovereign wealth fund’s portfolio.

Reid & Taylor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of S Kumars Nationwide, produces [Read more →]

The Singapore government and India plan to sign a bilateral intellectual property rights trade agreement according to Forbes.

The Singapore trade agreement with India continues to help trade relations as Singapore trade ranks as India’s 4th largest merchandise export market and 4th in term of India foreign direct investment with $4.7 billion in Singapore investments. [Read more →]

SingTel, Singapore Telecommunications Limited, has announced a deal with Apple to sell iPhone 3G to Singapore according to MacDailyNews.

The Singapore investment will allow SingTel to bring the iPhone with 3G networking to the Singapore market later this year.

While the Singapore investment announcement did not disclose specifics of the agreement with Apple, SingTel does plan to invest [Read more →]

The manufacturing sector barometer, the Singapore’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), was down in May for the third consecutive month according to Forbes.

While the decrease is marginal, May still posted a reading of 49.0 down from April’s reading of 49.3 which still has significant impact on the Singapore economy.

The Singapore Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management considers a PMI reading of below 50 as a [Read more →]

Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-linked investment company, plans to expand is presence into Brazil according to Forbes.

Currently, Temasek’s investment portfolio is 20 percent invested in Western economies with the remainder of the $100 billion in Asia.

The Brazil move will place a former managing director for value management, Alan Thompson, to head the Sao Paolo head office later this year.

The Singapore economy grew less than estimated in the first quarter of this year as Singapore GDP increased only 14.6 percent as opposed to the 16.9 percent expected according to Bloomberg.

In addition, the Singapore economy experienced a rise in consumer prices of 7.5 percent and the Singapore government is now expected 2008 inflation to hit 5.5 percent.

A key driver of the slowing is the continual decline in Singapore’s electronics exports. [Read more →]

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, the US law firm, has announced it will invest in Singapore by opening a new office according to the San Francisco Business Times.

The Singapore location will focus on infrastructure projects, corporate transactions, and structured finance.

The Gibson Dunn firm has 15 offices globally and [Read more →]

Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore Prime Minister, has announced that he believes the Singapore economy may continue to slow throughout 2008 and well into 2009 according to AFP.

While the Singapore government is keeping its 4 to 6 percent GDP growth target, its concern is that the US downturn will further extend into Europe and Japan and therefore ultimately hit the Singapore economy [Read more →]

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, announced it plans to invest further in western banks according to Reuters.

The Singapore investment news is welcome as western banks continue to struggle with liquidity problems due to the sub-prime and credit crisis.

GIC has already invested [Read more →]

The Singapore government and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have announced that the Singapore economy will not meet its growth target of 4 to 6 percent in 2008 according to AFP.

The news is no surprise considering the current global economic landscape. However, considering the Singapore economy is highly dependent on the US and external trade, the Singapore government is likely very concerned should the US recession last longer than expected.

Singapore trade is valued at 3 times Singapore gross domestic product (GDP). [Read more →]

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, has warned that the world may face the worst recession in 30 years according to The Economic Times.

The GIC did not specifically address the impact of the global turn down on the Singapore economy, but the fact the Singapore government sovereign wealth fund manages over $100 billion in global assets gives a good indication of what may be yet to come.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has recently invested heavily in [Read more →]

The Singapore government has announced that Singapore’s biomedical output is up fourfold according to AFP.

The Singapore’s biomedical sector has added $17.7 billion to the Singapore economy in 2007 compared to just $6.3 billion in 2000.

The strength in the Singapore’s biomedical sector aligns tightly with the Singapore governments aim to position the Singapore economy has a key [Read more →]

Alcon Inc., affiliate of Swiss drug maker Novartis, announced that it will invest in Singapore according to Forbes.

Alcon plans to build a manufacturing facility by 2012 and is looking for the Singapore investment to add to Alcon’s capability produce and distribute pharmaceuticals throughout Asia.

The new Alcon facility will be located in Tuas Biomedical Park and will employ over 150 employees. The total amount of the Singapore investment was not disclosed. [Read more →]

In an unexpected move, the Singapore central bank tightened its monetary policy on Thursday according to CNBC.

The move by the Singapore central bank is aimed to reduce inflationary pressure on the Singapore economy as the Singapore economy continues to grow at an annualized, seasonally adjusted rate of 16.9 percent.

Unlike the commonly used interest rate adjustment such as in the US, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) utilizes the exchange rate of the Singapore dollar [Read more →]

Wythe, the US pharmaceutical and health care products company, announced it will invest in Singapore $96 million according to Forbes.

The move to further invest in Singapore will expand the capacity of Wythe’s exiting [Read more →]

US firm Motorola Inc has announced that it will pull operations from Singapore according to Reuters.

The move will remove 700 jobs form the Singapore economy and falls [Read more →]