Awarding contracts to related companies is very serious. A lot of explanation is required.
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Economic News
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Awarding contracts to related companies is very serious. A lot of explanation is required.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124350003544761935
Local media not a word but wall street journal reported.
Local media not a word but wall street journal reported.
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Almost 40,000 MILLION LOSS. Thats amazing! Considering 3 million locals in Singapore, thats well about S$13,333 per pax.
It must be a world record loss? I thought Scholars should be able to beat the market even in Recession.
But those were mainly paper loss due to drastic drop in share prices during the global financial crisis period.
If nothing were sold and held till recovery, then little will be lost (if you don't panic)!
Similarly, I held on to my blue chips and in fact bought a little during down time and when the market recovers ( heng ah!), I did make a little money (on paper again).
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To hold, keep and recover from that drastic price fall would tan gu gu also don't happened. Else they will start blowing their own trumpets already in local media.
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Actually one thing about the Sraits time is that they also reported that awarding contracts to related persons has been the norm for the PAP as well. At least they are frank here
Common practice to invest buffer funds with investment firms to keep up with inflation. The only problem is the size of the fund from collection of maintenance fees from residents.
WP must be hammered for allowing such lucrative deals.
Is it just me who is feeling that this year CNY is very quiet ? I checked with my Sg counterparts n they say market is really quiet too. No festivities, minimal CNY decoration. Seems everyone is tightening their belts. The only people buying CNY goodies are the Sg who pile up their car boot to the max. Everyone is worried about the impending GST. Small family owned buisinesses are winding up to avoid reporting tax or to avoid investing in IT to meet the GST reporting requirements. The racial rhetoric isn't helping either. I hope we don't end up like Indonesia many years ago where the Chinese are made the scapegoats. We probably have to all move to Sg instead!
Heard that a lot of perhaps PAP affiliated estate management companies didn't want to bid for the contract for the management of the opposition ward GRC.
Maybe in fear of repercussions?
So it could just be a case of inexperience Trying to cope.
Maybe in fear of repercussions?
So it could just be a case of inexperience Trying to cope.
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Aiyah not that I like WP. But PAP is really too much. Sending own sons of the soils to defend the country and behind our backs import millions of FT take pink IC without the need to serve NS. This must be the greatest Injustice in Singapore since 1819.
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Not that we are pro or anti, just apolitical, just tcss. And whatever facts someone bring out or says, I observe that the pro-pap brigade in Sg social media would jump on them and brand as anti - pap. Must only hears the right stuffs, equate to brainwashing.
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Actually before they lost the billions, they were actually doing very well holding good stocks in the US markets. Then their returns were very very good compared to most other fund managers from the business news those days. And they never forget to reward themselves generously as performance was great.
Somehow someone think the collapsing US bank stock prices were dirt cheap to scoop where angels fear to tread.
The rest is history.
Somehow someone think the collapsing US bank stock prices were dirt cheap to scoop where angels fear to tread.
The rest is history.
Actually it's quite obvious that something is not right when the main focus is cheaper labor for ordinary workers but with super high cost of living, while it's ok for elites to continue paying themselves unbelievable high income (direct and indirect).
This only happen in 3rd world countries.
This only happen in 3rd world countries.
Malaysia spending trackers flash 'reality check' growth warning
13 Feb 11:28 AM
[KUALA LUMPUR] With the nation's key oil exports falling and budget cuts coming, Malaysia still had consumer spending as a prop for growth late last year.
That pillar may be weakening, escalating the risks for a middle-income economy that expanded an average 5.8 per cent in the past half decade. Measures of manufacturing wages and credit-card spending are the weakest since at least the global financial crisis, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled by Bloomberg.
Malaysia's currency, the worst performer against the dollar in Asia in the past three months, is already lumbering under concerns foreign investors will pull out their money as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise US interest rates. Prospects for weaker growth threaten to add to the gloom.
"Malaysia needs a reality check," said Chua Hak Bin, a Singapore-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "In the past, consumer spending has held up so well that it could buffer any surprises on the exports side, but this time I suspect consumers may be in for a rougher ride." Consumer sentiment is deteriorating, even with fuel and electricity costs now falling in the Southeast Asian nation. Malaysians had seen prices of essential items from sugar to gasoline climb in recent years as Prime Minister Najib Razak curbed subsidies to improve state finances, and are now bracing for a new goods and services tax that will start in April.
"Things are getting a bit more expensive," says Juliana Alwi, a 50-year-old housewife who says her husband's salary isn't growing much. While shopping for groceries this week in a Kuala Lumpur mall, she said she will stop buying clothes that aren't essential, and shift to less expensive make-up brands.
Subdued wage growth, job cuts at some state-owned companies, elevated household debt and stricter access to credit are restraining domestic spending, Chua said.
The ringgit fell 0.1 per cent to 3.6045 a US dollar in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, even after a report showed economic growth unexpectedly accelerated last quarter. It's fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performer among 11 major Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Malaysia, along with Indonesia, has the lowest reading in the Bloomberg Brief Domestic Demand Barometer in Southeast Asia, according to Tamara Henderson, an economist with Bloomberg Intelligence.
"These economies have higher sensitivity to oil-price movements," she said in a January report. "Malaysia has scope to underperform owing to a much larger deterioration in real wages."
Malaysia's manufacturing wages, adjusted for inflation, fell more than 2 per cent in December from a year earlier, the biggest decline since September 2009, while credit card balances fell every month in 2014, the longest slump since at least 2006, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. The two measures have tracked consumption patterns, history shows.
Consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in a year last quarter, an index by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research showed. That may curb the private consumption that helped the economy expand 5.8 per cent last quarter from a year earlier. After sentiment slid to an almost five-year low in the final quarter of 2013, private consumption growth eased in the next six months.
For now, consumer spending has been held up by "healthy" economic growth of the past few years, bonus payments, government handouts to the poor and festive spending ahead of the Chinese New Year celebration this month, said Tan Hai Hsin, managing director of Retail Group Malaysia, a consulting firm. Malaysians are also front loading purchases before the new tax in April, he said.
Growth Driver "Domestic demand will remain as the key driver of growth," Malaysia's central bank said Jan 28. "While private consumption is expected to moderate, it will remain supported by the steady rise in income and employment, and the additional disposable income from the lower oil prices." Aeon Co. (M) Bhd, the Malaysian unit of the Japanese retailer, has fallen 24 percent over the past six months. The benchmark stock index has fallen more than 3 percent in the same period.
"The greatest challenge in 2015 for the retail industry in Malaysia is consumers' spending," said Tan of Retail Group, citing the new tax and cutting his industry sales forecast for this year to 5.5 per cent from 6 per cent. "For the six-month period after April 2015, retail sales will likely slow down." Rate Increases Interest-rate swaps show traders have lowered their expectations for an increase in borrowing costs in the next year.
"Consumer spending and investments are still expanding albeit just at a slower pace," said Julia Goh, an economist at CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. "Policy makers will have to make some tough decisions to ensure that growth is supported, inflation is manageable and shoring up confidence in the ringgit." Malaysians like Lee Chau Shiang are choosing the path of austerity for now.
"I am spending a lot less nowadays," said Mr Lee, 28, who worries the April tax will hurt his video production business and is saddled with loan payments for his car, motorcycle and home that sap almost 70 percent of its monthly income of about 4,000 ringgit (US$1,118). "I seldom think about nice dinners anymore."
BLOOMBERG
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/gov...g-trackers-flash-reality-check-growth-warning
13 Feb 11:28 AM
[KUALA LUMPUR] With the nation's key oil exports falling and budget cuts coming, Malaysia still had consumer spending as a prop for growth late last year.
That pillar may be weakening, escalating the risks for a middle-income economy that expanded an average 5.8 per cent in the past half decade. Measures of manufacturing wages and credit-card spending are the weakest since at least the global financial crisis, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled by Bloomberg.
Malaysia's currency, the worst performer against the dollar in Asia in the past three months, is already lumbering under concerns foreign investors will pull out their money as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise US interest rates. Prospects for weaker growth threaten to add to the gloom.
"Malaysia needs a reality check," said Chua Hak Bin, a Singapore-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "In the past, consumer spending has held up so well that it could buffer any surprises on the exports side, but this time I suspect consumers may be in for a rougher ride." Consumer sentiment is deteriorating, even with fuel and electricity costs now falling in the Southeast Asian nation. Malaysians had seen prices of essential items from sugar to gasoline climb in recent years as Prime Minister Najib Razak curbed subsidies to improve state finances, and are now bracing for a new goods and services tax that will start in April.
"Things are getting a bit more expensive," says Juliana Alwi, a 50-year-old housewife who says her husband's salary isn't growing much. While shopping for groceries this week in a Kuala Lumpur mall, she said she will stop buying clothes that aren't essential, and shift to less expensive make-up brands.
Subdued wage growth, job cuts at some state-owned companies, elevated household debt and stricter access to credit are restraining domestic spending, Chua said.
The ringgit fell 0.1 per cent to 3.6045 a US dollar in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, even after a report showed economic growth unexpectedly accelerated last quarter. It's fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performer among 11 major Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Malaysia, along with Indonesia, has the lowest reading in the Bloomberg Brief Domestic Demand Barometer in Southeast Asia, according to Tamara Henderson, an economist with Bloomberg Intelligence.
"These economies have higher sensitivity to oil-price movements," she said in a January report. "Malaysia has scope to underperform owing to a much larger deterioration in real wages."
Malaysia's manufacturing wages, adjusted for inflation, fell more than 2 per cent in December from a year earlier, the biggest decline since September 2009, while credit card balances fell every month in 2014, the longest slump since at least 2006, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. The two measures have tracked consumption patterns, history shows.
Consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in a year last quarter, an index by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research showed. That may curb the private consumption that helped the economy expand 5.8 per cent last quarter from a year earlier. After sentiment slid to an almost five-year low in the final quarter of 2013, private consumption growth eased in the next six months.
For now, consumer spending has been held up by "healthy" economic growth of the past few years, bonus payments, government handouts to the poor and festive spending ahead of the Chinese New Year celebration this month, said Tan Hai Hsin, managing director of Retail Group Malaysia, a consulting firm. Malaysians are also front loading purchases before the new tax in April, he said.
Growth Driver "Domestic demand will remain as the key driver of growth," Malaysia's central bank said Jan 28. "While private consumption is expected to moderate, it will remain supported by the steady rise in income and employment, and the additional disposable income from the lower oil prices." Aeon Co. (M) Bhd, the Malaysian unit of the Japanese retailer, has fallen 24 percent over the past six months. The benchmark stock index has fallen more than 3 percent in the same period.
"The greatest challenge in 2015 for the retail industry in Malaysia is consumers' spending," said Tan of Retail Group, citing the new tax and cutting his industry sales forecast for this year to 5.5 per cent from 6 per cent. "For the six-month period after April 2015, retail sales will likely slow down." Rate Increases Interest-rate swaps show traders have lowered their expectations for an increase in borrowing costs in the next year.
"Consumer spending and investments are still expanding albeit just at a slower pace," said Julia Goh, an economist at CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. "Policy makers will have to make some tough decisions to ensure that growth is supported, inflation is manageable and shoring up confidence in the ringgit." Malaysians like Lee Chau Shiang are choosing the path of austerity for now.
"I am spending a lot less nowadays," said Mr Lee, 28, who worries the April tax will hurt his video production business and is saddled with loan payments for his car, motorcycle and home that sap almost 70 percent of its monthly income of about 4,000 ringgit (US$1,118). "I seldom think about nice dinners anymore."
BLOOMBERG
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/gov...g-trackers-flash-reality-check-growth-warning
Today I drove to JB at about 2pm from the Causeway, the traffic was so light that I can drive non stop all the way between the CIQs.
During the same time in previous years with 1 week before CNY, the traffic at this time would be very heavy, moving at very slow start/stop speed.
This is after the new road tolls and you can see that its going to be very bad for the retail businesses in JB with obvious less crowded shopping centres.
During the same time in previous years with 1 week before CNY, the traffic at this time would be very heavy, moving at very slow start/stop speed.
This is after the new road tolls and you can see that its going to be very bad for the retail businesses in JB with obvious less crowded shopping centres.
You should try coming in Saturday or Sunday.
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I do hope I can go on weekdays but due to work we can mostly go on weekends. The jams can be horrifying during weekends
Hey Kid, this is besides the point and NOT what I'm talking about!
Even during the festive period and traffic is so light, it just simply translate into lesser visitors and hence, lesser shoppers, lesser diners!
During other years, this was never the case, never mind its weekend or weekday!
So, as I had said several times before, the retail businesses in JB will be greatly affected with those new road tolls and we are seeing it happening!
If they only depend their business to be brisk on weekends and holidays, then good luck!
With the coming implementation of GST, which is the double whammy, do you foresee a brighter and rosy future ahead for them?
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I agree from the perspective of someone who has a few running businesses now, majority of the businesses here has been slowing in many areas recently and this can be felt across the board and not just in property. People are not into spending as much as previous years and it can be seen in the changes in spending habits as well as the "wei ya" (end of the work year/annual dinners) that are popular here. I have been invited and attended 6 the past couple of weeks and every single one has scaled down significantly.
Maybe from my past unfortunate experience, i have learned not to assume something when i know it is not true and the more i knew, the more concerned i was for a time. We will call a spade a spade.
Although i am finally in the property line (very late arrival as i have desisted for the longest time, participating earlier only in super minor roles for projects in deference to a past friend), there is no point in drumming up something, properties will always have their cycles of growth and bust in any country and perhaps one of the factors propping or dampening prices are the rental rate and to long term investors, the yield one is able to get. The trick is to let go when its time or hold steadfast all the way (if one can manage it).
Thanks to a combination of the weakening ringgit, central bank and banking policies, certain other (perhaps not so well advised) policies, arrogance for some across both sides of the borders, global oil slump and the advent of the GST in April coupled with April being a tax month could lead to a perfect storm if allowed to brew unchecked. Already it has taken its share of victims with some businesses already closing down. In terms of the view from the macro front, with the subtle changes, a new world order may yet surface and both countries and indeed ASEAN itself may need to increasingly step up cross border cooperation. The last time the price of oil was allowed to fall so low (if memory served me correctly), it affected one of the super powers so badly that it disintegrated and the balance of power shifted. A new demon or scapegoat had to be found to fuel the war economy on which so many countries depended upon.
Maybe finally now with lesser Singaporeans coming in across the borders, fewer will point their finger at them for the increase in prices, etc. Surprisingly to some of my learned friends, meanwhile some other countries are stepping up on investments in Malaysia. It is not all doom and gloom however, the weakening ringgit is seen as an invitation to some to get into the game at lower prices as compared to just a few months ago. As well, with the pricing of oil and thus transport being low, it would offset some of the changes and impact that the GST roll out will have. Failure breeds success, hopefully those who can do something about it can still do so, it is already late enough.
Quite a number of the new talents in Singapore are setting up their homes in Malaysia and making the daily commute, from my very limited experience, the rental market has seen a marked increase as compared to the same quarter last year so perhaps it is a time for some to reconsider their options and to either liquidate or to hold on for rental yield.
Maybe from my past unfortunate experience, i have learned not to assume something when i know it is not true and the more i knew, the more concerned i was for a time. We will call a spade a spade.
Although i am finally in the property line (very late arrival as i have desisted for the longest time, participating earlier only in super minor roles for projects in deference to a past friend), there is no point in drumming up something, properties will always have their cycles of growth and bust in any country and perhaps one of the factors propping or dampening prices are the rental rate and to long term investors, the yield one is able to get. The trick is to let go when its time or hold steadfast all the way (if one can manage it).
Thanks to a combination of the weakening ringgit, central bank and banking policies, certain other (perhaps not so well advised) policies, arrogance for some across both sides of the borders, global oil slump and the advent of the GST in April coupled with April being a tax month could lead to a perfect storm if allowed to brew unchecked. Already it has taken its share of victims with some businesses already closing down. In terms of the view from the macro front, with the subtle changes, a new world order may yet surface and both countries and indeed ASEAN itself may need to increasingly step up cross border cooperation. The last time the price of oil was allowed to fall so low (if memory served me correctly), it affected one of the super powers so badly that it disintegrated and the balance of power shifted. A new demon or scapegoat had to be found to fuel the war economy on which so many countries depended upon.
Maybe finally now with lesser Singaporeans coming in across the borders, fewer will point their finger at them for the increase in prices, etc. Surprisingly to some of my learned friends, meanwhile some other countries are stepping up on investments in Malaysia. It is not all doom and gloom however, the weakening ringgit is seen as an invitation to some to get into the game at lower prices as compared to just a few months ago. As well, with the pricing of oil and thus transport being low, it would offset some of the changes and impact that the GST roll out will have. Failure breeds success, hopefully those who can do something about it can still do so, it is already late enough.
Quite a number of the new talents in Singapore are setting up their homes in Malaysia and making the daily commute, from my very limited experience, the rental market has seen a marked increase as compared to the same quarter last year so perhaps it is a time for some to reconsider their options and to either liquidate or to hold on for rental yield.
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