Singapore’s economy expanded less than previously estimated in the first half of this year and growth may “moderate” in the coming months, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said.
The city-state’s GDP rose 17.9 percent in the six months through June from a year earlier, Lee said in a televised National Day message yesterday. That compares with a record 18.1 percent pace reported last month. The economy may grow 13 percent to 15 percent this year, Lee said, reiterating an earlier forecast.
Singapore is in the running to be the world’s fastest-growing economy this year as it celebrates the 45th year of independence tomorrow with a parade of tanks, artillery and fighter jet displays. The expansion is part of an Asian rebound that has prompted Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and India to raise interest rates and Singapore to revalue its currency, even amid concern Europe’s debt crisis may impair global growth.
“Risks remain in the world economy, especially in Europe and the US,” Lee said. “The global financial system is not fully mended. If the world economy turns bad, we will be buffeted. We need to stay vigilant and watch the developments worldwide.”
Singapore’s economy grew an annualized 26 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months as tourism and exports surged, according to initial government estimates released on July 14. The trade ministry will release updated GDP data tomorrow.
A government-appointed panel earlier this year unveiled strategies to help the city state grow at a sustainable rate and faster than advanced economies. The country aims to at least double its productivity growth to between 2 percent and 3 percent annually in the next decade after the rate averaged 1 percent in the past 10 years. It has raised levies on foreign workers to reduce companies’ reliance on cheap imported labor.
Lee said at the end of last year he would “moderate” the inflow of foreign workers so that citizens aren’t “overwhelmed.”
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS