Until the global financial turmoil last year, Singapore has enjoyed 10 years of continuous growth of more than 5% per day.
The Singapore government has always used GDP growth as a basis for citizens to appraise its own performance. Even a variable portion of their multi-million salaries is pegged to the GDP.
Singapore’s GDP figures are indeed impressive: Singapore is ranked third in the world by the World Bank in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita ($49,288). (source: wikipedia)
[PPP = Purchasing Power Parity, GDP at PPP per capita refers to the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average population for the same year]
Only Norway and Luxembourg are ranked higher than Singapore. The United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Sweden, Austria, Iceland and Holland are the other countries within the top ten.
In a way, our economy’s sterling performance is a vindication of the government’s ‘growth at all cost’ economic policy. Singapore has a first world developed modern economy.
GDP growth is usually translated somewhat to a better quality of life for the citizens, but not exactly in Singapore’s case.
If we study the indices such as wage level, domestic purchase power and spending power as shown in the UBS study, we will realize that we are ranked way below the developed economies.
Our income gap, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, is the highest among the twenty most developed economies, comparable with the Philipines, Nigeria and Nicaragua. (source: wikipedia)
This means that the gains we have made as a nation from years of economic growth are not distributed evenly across the population. A minority becomes richer, but the rest are not better off. Some even become poorer.
According to a NUS study completed last year, lifetime income inequality has been increasing rapidly especially after the Asian financial crisis. In fact, despite the substantial growth of the economy, the lower income quantile has seen a drop in their real lifetime income. (source: NUS SCAPE)
In a way, we are “paupers” compared to our counterparts in other first world economies? Singaporeans have lower spending power, they are likely to work longer hours and even then, many may not save enough for their retirement. Why is this so?
Read rest of article here:
http://temasekreview.com/?p=12237
The Singapore government has always used GDP growth as a basis for citizens to appraise its own performance. Even a variable portion of their multi-million salaries is pegged to the GDP.
Singapore’s GDP figures are indeed impressive: Singapore is ranked third in the world by the World Bank in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita ($49,288). (source: wikipedia)
[PPP = Purchasing Power Parity, GDP at PPP per capita refers to the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average population for the same year]
Only Norway and Luxembourg are ranked higher than Singapore. The United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Sweden, Austria, Iceland and Holland are the other countries within the top ten.
In a way, our economy’s sterling performance is a vindication of the government’s ‘growth at all cost’ economic policy. Singapore has a first world developed modern economy.
GDP growth is usually translated somewhat to a better quality of life for the citizens, but not exactly in Singapore’s case.
If we study the indices such as wage level, domestic purchase power and spending power as shown in the UBS study, we will realize that we are ranked way below the developed economies.
Our income gap, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, is the highest among the twenty most developed economies, comparable with the Philipines, Nigeria and Nicaragua. (source: wikipedia)
This means that the gains we have made as a nation from years of economic growth are not distributed evenly across the population. A minority becomes richer, but the rest are not better off. Some even become poorer.
According to a NUS study completed last year, lifetime income inequality has been increasing rapidly especially after the Asian financial crisis. In fact, despite the substantial growth of the economy, the lower income quantile has seen a drop in their real lifetime income. (source: NUS SCAPE)
In a way, we are “paupers” compared to our counterparts in other first world economies? Singaporeans have lower spending power, they are likely to work longer hours and even then, many may not save enough for their retirement. Why is this so?
Read rest of article here:
http://temasekreview.com/?p=12237
