Events

Synopsis

Singapore's 2012 GDP grew 1.2%, the weakest annual growth registered in a non-recessionary year since 1975. However, monthly inflation rate had been stubbornly averaging 5% since the start of 2011. If demand was weak, why were prices rising and unemployment rates low?

More importantly, will this be the trend in 2013 and what does it imply for Singapore's SMEs?

UOB economist Francis Tan pulls out a couple of charts on various economic indicators and provides his views on this issue.


About The Speaker

Francis is an economist from UOB and covers the Singapore and Thai economies. Prior to this, he worked as an Investment Strategist in Phillip Capital and used macroeconomics, business cycle theories, market timing and technical analyses to develop a systematic top-down investment approach to manage clients’ monies. Francis had also worked as an Economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Singapore Tourism Board, which he specialised in Tourism Economics. He obtained a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Economics in 2002 and a Master of Social Science in Applied Economics in 2003 from the National University of Singapore. His latest work titled "Tourism Demand in Singapore: Estimating Neighbourhood Effects" is one of the chapters in the upcoming Handbook of Tourism Economics that will be published in 2013.