Fashion
Financial experts have noted that because of the fact that Singapore did pretty badly in 2020 for various reasons, it is undervalued and a lot of people do not pay attention to it. Even though it has been a bad period for the Asian Tiger, it is a good idea to buy the market in Singapore.
This trend was not typical for Singapore only, as China and North Korea also experienced the same very heavily amid the coronavirus pandemic. Singapore’s Straits Times Index is among Asia’s worst performing indexes by far in 2020. It is still down more than 21% year to date.
About 8 billion Singapore dollars ($5.8 billion) to support the economy to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus was allocated by the Singapore government, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat declared that on August 17.
The minister said in a televised address that as a result of the damage brought by the coronavirus, the economic consequences were serious. He also added that “the global economy remains very weak,” and the recovery “will depend on how well countries are at containing the spread of the virus.”
Because of the crisis in the country, the Forex industry was also affected and forex trading brokers in Singapore expressed their fears about the upcoming period as well.
The government has allocated an additional S $187 million (US $136.5 million) in assistance to the airline industry; it also provides cash payments to unemployed Singaporeans or those who have lost significant income, as well as workers with low wages.
Meanwhile, the new measures also include S $20 million in “travel loans” to Singaporeans to encourage domestic tourism.
The Southeast Asian country last week reported a 13.2% decline in its gross domestic product in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, the worst ever, according to official statistics.
According to official figures, the Singapore government expects the economy to contract 5-7% this year, the worst recession on record.
Singapore’s economy plunged into recession in the second quarter. Economic growth contracted 41.2% from the previous quarter, according to the BBC.
According to local authorities, this recession is one of the worst in the country’s history since independence from Malaysia in 1965. One of the reasons is the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected business and trade in the city-country.
Official data show that Singapore’s GDP contracted 12.6% in the second quarter over the previous year. Before that, there was a drop in GDP in the first quarter by 2.2%.
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted the country’s trade, especially its exporters. The construction industry is also experiencing record rates of decline.
Singapore is not the only Asian country to experience serious economic problems due to the coronavirus pandemic. Japan’s GDP in the second quarter contracted by 20% compared to the previous period. But the data for China indicate its return to economic growth.
In Singapore, the total number of coronavirus cases was more than 56,000. The death toll stands at 27.
