Singapore is hot and steamyEvery economist in the UK has been both surprised and amazed in an uptick of 1.1% in UK GDP in the quarter to end of June 010. Did it really happen? If it did, it was because builders started work again and factories re-started making things. It has to be said that during the months of April, May & June, the weather has been cool and not spectacular.
In Singapore by contrast it is always hot, very hot and sticky and spectacular. And so it proved to be for their economy too. Having taken a dive in the South China Sea and become a parking lot for the world’s tanker fleet, suddenly the multi-cultural, super-clean Singapore scene is back on track with a recorded rise in GDP for the first half of 2010 registered at a colossal 18.1%. With a likely annual growth rate for 2010 of maybe 13% to 15%, even the mighty China could be surpassed.
My forthcoming book “Barn door to balance sheet” chronicles events in Singapore in the years 1972-1974 when, as a young management consultant working for Price Waterhouse, I worked on the merger of the telecommunications authorities (STB & TAS). So, Julia and I will add to one of the four drivers of the Singaporian economy (tourism) in October for a journey down sentimental road. I will write about how things have changed. One thing that hasn’t is the heat and the steam – and I cannot wait.
JGS-Jul 23 2010
