Economic prospects of Singapore

• Main Author: TAN, Augustine H. H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Economic conditions; economic growth; Singapore; Asian Studies; Growth and Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1979
• Institution: Singapore Management University

For Singapore's economic future, I assume that all Singaporeans want to ensure that our current standard of living is at least maintained, if not improved upon. Like most economists, I do not assume that material prosperity equals happiness. There exists, however, a minimum growth rate that is needed to maintain full employment for Singaporeans, especially young Singaporeans, and which will avoid graduate unemployment. Unfortunately, what that necessary minimum growth rate is, is absent from the national conversation. Nevertheless, that minimum growth rate should allow for the median wage to rise or at least, not fall as has happened in industrial countries. Can Singapore avoid the secular stagnation currently being experienced in industrial countries? For example, since the onset of Financial Crisis in 2007, the US trend growth rate has fallen from about 3% to about 1.8%, resulting in prolonged unemployment, stagnation of real wages, lower participation rates, not to mention homelessness, greater dependence on food stamps and other forms of welfare.