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Q4 contraction of 4.2% is worse than expected; services sector badly hit
By CHEW XIANG

(SINGAPORE) Singapore’s economy shrank 4.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, worse than the 3.7 per cent decline estimated last month, as financial services performed even more poorly than expected.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry in its annual economic survey released yesterday said that the financial sector contracted 8.1 per cent, substantially worse than the 1.8 per cent drop forecast in January, on the back of significant declines in trading activities in foreign exchange and stock brokerage, fund management and Asian Currency Units.

On the whole, services producing industries were down 1.3 per cent in the quarter, substantially below the MTI’s previous estimate of a 0.1 per cent fall. Services make up roughly 60 per cent of Singapore’s $257 billion economy.

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Business Times link

SINGAPORE – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) said on Friday it will convert its Citigroup preferred shares into common stock in a bid to shore up the troubled US lender.

GIC said it will exchange its convertible preferred notes for common stock at a price of US$3.25 a share, which compares with a conversion price of US$26.35 under the terms of the original investment.

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ST link

BERLIN: European leaders will crack down on tax havens as they seek to boost transparency and apply uniform rules governing financial markets in the wake of the global crisis.

A seven-point plan agreed by European heads of state and government from the Group of 20 (G-20) nations in Berlin yesterday calls for ‘sanctions’ against ‘uncooperative jurisdictions’.

‘We want to put a stop to tax havens,’ French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after the meeting. ‘We want results on this, with a list of tax havens and a series of consequences.’

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ST link

By Francis Chan

MORE consumers here are missing their credit card and personal loan payments but the numbers still fall below the highs recorded during the Sars outbreak in 2003.

According to the latest figures from Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS), the percentage of consumers who missed at least one credit card payment rose slightly from 1.48 per cent in December 2007 to 1.67 per cent last December.

Similarly, the percentage of delinquent personal loans that were 30 or more days past due increased from 3.73 per cent in December 2007 to 5.34 per cent in December last year.

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ST link

Unemployment may hit 20-year high of 5% by middle of 2010: Economist
By Fiona Chan

MORE than 99,000 jobs could be lost by next year as Singapore’s worst recession takes its toll on workers, according to a new prediction by DBS Bank.

Its Singapore economist, Mr Irvin Seah, said the worsening downturn would inflict more pain on employees than what they suffered in the Asian financial crisis of 1998, the 2001 dot.com bust and the Sars outbreak in 2003.

He expects unemployment to rise above 4 per cent in the second half of this year and touch a 20-year high of 5 per cent by the middle of next year.

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ST link

Fall worse than forecast; global downturn, festive break cited as reasons
By Alvin Foo

SINGAPORE’S industrial production took its worst tumble last month as it was battered by the global economic downturn and the festive break.

Total manufacturing sank 29.1 per cent last month compared to the same period the previous year, following a slide of 12.8 per cent last December.

Economists said last month’s dive was an unwelcome record. CIMB-GK’s Mr Song Seng Wun said: ‘That’s a new low, the worst since we began recording data in 1984.’

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ST link

WHEN organisers of a job fair at Jelutong Community Centre in Sembawang opened the doors at 9.30 am yesterday, they were greeted by a long line of waiting people.

Over 1,000 arrived within the first hour of the North West Community Development Council’s (CDC) job fair yesterday. By the time it ended at 4.30pm, the number had risen to 4,800.

The event brought together 40 service industry employers offering more than 3,000 jobs and was the largest recruitment fair organised by a CDC.

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ST link

HUNDREDS of thousands of lower income earners in Singapore are to be given greater access to relatively small unsecured loans from banks.

From March 1, those earning $20,000 to $30,000 a year will – for the first time – be able to seek unsecured bank loans, that is, loans not requiring collateral.

Until now, they have been able to seek these loans only from non-bank lenders such as GE Money and SingPost or other licensed moneylenders, who sometimes charge prohibitive interest rates.

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Electronics sector will bear brunt but there is a glimmer of hope: NTUC deputy sec-gen
By Jermyn Chow

MORE unionised workers will lose their jobs in the first three months of this year than originally estimated: The number is now expected to hit 4,300.

The figure is much higher than labour chief Lim Swee Say’s estimate of 3,700, made just last weekend.

In giving the bleak figures last night, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob said the bulk of the retrenchments will come from the beleaguered electronics sector.

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ST link

…and so is the number of card holders seeking counselling
By Melissa Sim

CREDIT card debt hit an estimated $3.4 billion last December, the highest for that month in 20 years. More people have also sought help in settling their outstanding bills.

Going by figures from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the number of credit cards rose 11 per cent in the last year, but rollover balances jumped more than 13 per cent.

Rollover balances, which are the unpaid amounts that are subject to interest charges, have been climbing steadily since 2006.

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But traditional media still has role to play, says PM Lee
By Jeremy Au Yong

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong made clear last night that the Government recognised the growing reach and influence of the new media and was evolving to deal with it.

In an interview with Channel News Asia on the changing media landscape which aired last night, he said: ‘We are still learning. It is not easy to make this transition. It is like going from sea to land or vice versa, you are changing your medium and you need to get comfortable with it. But we are working hard at it.’

PM Lee said the Government was building up its capabilities in new media so it put its material up in a way that would appeal to the Internet generation.

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Kangaroo T-shirts trio showed wilful, stubborn contempt for the courts
By Kor Kian Beng

THREE men who wore T-shirts depicting a kangaroo dressed in judge’s robes last year presented the worst form of insult possible against the court system here by calling it a ‘kangaroo court’.

Justice Judith Prakash, who sentenced them to jail terms last November after finding them to be in contempt of court, said in her written judgment that their conduct showed a wilful and stubborn contempt for the integrity of the courts.

It was also designed to degrade the administration of justice here, she said in her judgment released yesterday.

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ST link

TWO-THIRDS of Singapore’s terrorist detainees arrested since 2001 have been released after rehabilitation, and so far, none has strayed back into terrorism.

Close to 40 men with past terror links have been released and have returned to society, some for four years or more.

Another 20 remain in detention.

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ST link

SLUGGISH sales at some retail outlets are set to get a lift with a novel bonus scheme for senior employees at property giant CapitaLand.

Hundreds of the company’s managerial staff will get shopping vouchers worth a total of $1 million as part of their bonuses this year.

CapitaLand believes the move is good for staff, good for the economy and good for the 12 malls it owns.

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ST link

THE United States government is on the brink of taking a huge stake in ailing Citigroup as the global financial crisis tightens its grip on the banking giant.

The dramatic step could involve the government taking a 40 per cent holding in Citi, a controversial move that will raise the spectre of nationalisation in America’s beleaguered financial sector.

Citi is driving the move. It approached regulators yesterday with a plan for the government to convert some of its US$45 billion (S$69 billion) in preferred shares into up to 40 per cent of common equity, according to news reports.

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ST link

By Goh Wen Zhong

A FRIEND recently joined a Facebook group named ‘I have an ex-boyfriend who makes me want to vomit’.

The group’s description says it all.

It confirms the Chinese adage, nan ren bu huai, nu ren bu ai, which loosely translates into ‘if the boy isn’t bad, the girls won’t like him’.

In one corner, meet Exhibit A – my friend, an overseas-educated civil servant and former national sportsman with a great sense of humour. He also happens to be a perfectly decent gentleman.

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Each party has roles to play and should make most of partnership: PM
By Jeremy Au Yong

THE close and cooperative relationship that exists between the Government, employers and worker unions here is a key strength, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday as he recounted how a visiting foreign leader was astonished that such a system was even possible.

Speaking to a crowd of over 500 at the Singapore Tripartism Forum, he told of a conversation he had with a Latin American leader, whom he did not name, over a recent lunch.

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ST link

BEIJING: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a quiet nod to human rights issues yesterday, but there was no mistaking her key message to China as she wrapped up a week-long trip in Asia: Please continue to buy US Treasuries.

She further tied the US and China closer than ever by saying that both countries will ‘rise and fall’ together in this financial crisis.

On her last day here, she urged China to continue to invest in US Treasury bonds, saying that this would boost the American economy and, in return, stimulate the import of Chinese goods.

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New measures to help PMETs as more make up ranks of retrenched
By Goh Chin Lian

THE Government’s next move to help the retrenched find jobs will target specifically professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced yesterday.

These are the better-educated workers, with at least a diploma, who are forming an increasing proportion of the retrenched compared to earlier recessions.

Laid-off PMETs say that even if they are willing to take a lower-paying job, bosses tend to prefer younger and less-qualified workers.

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