Marina Bay Sands gets record $12 billion loan amid tourism boo

Bloomberg

Tue, 18 February 2025

Marina Bay Sands’ expansion plans come as Singapore’s tourism industry has staged a sharp rebound since the pandemic.
(Photo: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg)

By Chien Mi Wong

(Bloomberg) — Marina Bay Sands Pte has obtained a $12 billion (US$9 billion) multi-tranche loan to fund a planned expansion of its casino resort in Singapore, according to a person familiar with the matter, marking the largest such financing in the city state ever.

Will the Indian economy ever surpass that of China?

Alicia García-Herrero

Apr 30, 2024 

India’s growth rate is clearly higher than that of China, especially since 2022, and there is no expectation this trend will
change any time soon. Photo: Bloomberg

Had I asked this question ten years ago, the answer would have been clear cut: Impossible. But things are changing. The Chinese economy is five to six times bigger than that of India, but India’s growth rate is clearly higher than that of China, especially since 2022, and there is no expectation this trend will change any time soon. This means that, unless a major shock hits the Indian economy, it will continue to converge in size with that of China for at least 30 years until India completes its urbanization process. Whether this will make the Indian economy bigger than that of China is hard to tell since it will depend on how fast China will decelerate but also how long India will continue to benefit from its current long-hanging fruits to create growth, from urbanization, a growing population and a very favourable external environment as the most obvious hedge for the West against the rise of China.

The future of ‘communist capitalism’ in China

The question of whether Xi-ism is killing Deng-ism is growing 

MARTIN WOLF

MARCH 13 2024 

What is the economic future of China? This question raises many specific issues, notably China’s persistent macroeconomic imbalances, the threat of population decline and worsening relations with important parts of the outside world, above all, an increasingly hostile US. But underneath all of these lies a deeper one: is “communist capitalism”, that seemingly self-contradicting invention of Deng Xiaoping, inexorably fading away under Xi Jinping? Will China’s regime ossify and, in the end, collapse, as the Soviet Union did? 

China-US Relations, Taiwan, and ASEAN

China seen as most influential power in Southeast Asia: ASEAN Studies Centre

But survey respondents from the 10 ASEAN states also expressed concern about the country's expanding influence.

Lowy Institute's Asia Power Index 2023: (from first to tenth place) United States, China, Japan, India, Russia, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand.

Chew Hui Min

13 Feb 2023 


SINGAPORE: China is seen as the most influential economic and political power in Southeast Asia, but its expanding influence is not viewed favourably by a majority of respondents in a survey of Southeast Asians.

Slowing growth in China and what it could mean for the World.

 WSJ video on persistent deflation in China and how it would affect the Global Economy

It’s crunch time for the debt ceiling

The main sticking point: government spending.

President Biden and Speaker McCarthy

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

By Neal Freyman

May 22, 2023


It’s understandable if you haven’t been following negotiations around the debt ceiling—it is “negotiations around the debt ceiling,” after all.

But it might be time to start paying attention, considering that the clock for the US defaulting on its debts is getting dangerously close to midnight. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated yesterday that the US likely wouldn’t be able to pay all of its bills beginning next Thursday, June 1, if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling from its current $31.4 trillion level by then.

‘I’ll take cabs but eat hawker food most days’: Millennials’ spending choices spark debate

One millennial could spend up to S$800 monthly on Grab rides; another buys make-up using ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes. Talking Point finds out why younger Singaporeans may be more at risk of getting into more debt than previous generations.

Neo Chai Chin
Chan Luo Er

09 Apr 2023 

Sun Cable Update (Jan 2023)

Singapore-based Sun Cable collapses, stalling Australia-to-Asia solar power project

A 4,200km undersea cable promises to deliver vast amounts of clean energy to Singapore.
(Image: Sun Cable)

11 Jan 2023

Singapore-based Sun Cable is going into voluntary administration, the clean energy firm said on Wednesday (Jan 11), months after billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes took on the role of chairman.

The company is aiming to develop a A$30 billion-plus (S$27.6 billion) project to supply solar power from Australia to Singapore, with the backing of tech billionaire and climate activist Cannon-Brookes and the richest man Down Under Andrew Forrest...

MAS tightens monetary policy for the fifth time in a year to dampen inflation

The central bank said that a further tightening of monetary policy is needed to help “ensure that price pressures are dampened over the next few quarters”.

Tang See Kit

14 Oct 2022 

SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has tightened monetary policy for the fifth time in a year, allowing a further strengthening in the Singapore dollar to help dampen inflation.

In its half-yearly monetary policy statement released on Friday (Oct 14), the Singapore central bank said it will re-centre the mid-point of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER) policy band “up to its prevailing level”.

The slope and width of the band were left unchanged.

Commentary: Ignoring China’s disastrous ‘three Ds’ could be a global risk

Disease, drought and debt will have worldwide consequences, says the Financial Times' Megan Greene.

A section of a parched riverbed is seen along the Yangtze River in Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province
on Aug 19, 2022. (Photo: AFP/STR)

Megan Greene

08 Sep 2022 

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island: In a world beset by multiple crises, officials may be looking past the biggest threat of all: China.

The talk among central bankers at the Jackson Hole Federal Reserve Conference focused on inflation and rising interest rates. Absent was any mention that just 10 days beforehand, the People’s Bank of China did exactly the opposite, unexpectedly cutting its key interest rate.

China is beset by three distressing Ds: Debt, disease and drought. They belie a slowdown that is not raising sufficient alarm bells among investors and policymakers. China remains heavily integrated into the global supply chain and is a potential driver of global demand as one of the biggest markets for foreign goods and services.

Commentary: Why China is not rising as a financial superpower

Unlike the US and Japan, China’s economic rise has not resulted in the yuan becoming a global currency. Beijing has not found the confidence to lift capital controls and make the yuan fully convertible, says the Financial Times’ Ruchir Sharma.

Ruchir Sharma

21 Jun 2022

NEW YORK: China’s rise on the world stage is perhaps this century’s most frequently repeated news story. The country’s economic footprint has expanded spectacularly. Its widening military reach has made recent headlines.

Yet as an aspiring financial superpower, China is going nowhere.

This has not happened before. The United States rose as an economic force and then as a financial power, before the dollar became the world’s leading currency in the 1920s. Previous empires, from Britain to 15th century Portugal, followed a similar arc, as investor Ray Dalio recently showed.

China is breaking the mould, rising rapidly as an economic force but glacially as a financial power.

Commentary: Why is Ukraine so keen to join the European Union?

Joining the European Union would be Ukraine's symbolic act of placing a stake in the ground, claiming an identity and a heritage, and building towards a peaceful and prosperous future, say two academics.

Members of the European Parliament sit behind signs in support of Ukraine during an extraordinary session on Ukraine in Brussels on Tuesday, Mar 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Mathew Doidge

Serena Kelly

03 May 2022 

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand: With the weight of Russian military might bearing down on it, Ukraine applied to join the European Union (EU) on Feb 28. While the Russian invasion provided the immediate pretext, membership had been on the Ukrainian political agenda since the Orange Revolution of 2004–2005.

Hawkers say they have to raise prices to survive, as rising cost of ingredients hits hard

Jalelah Abu Baker

29 Apr 2022 

SINGAPORE: On Monday (Apr 25), chwee kueh seller Theresa Tan's chye poh (preserved radish) supplier told her that he will increase his prices.

A tin of chye poh, which she can easily go through in a day, will cost S$158 from May 1, up from S$130 now.

This additional cost for the ingredient, an essential in the making of the steamed rice flour cake dish, would come on top of others.

Speaking to CNA at her stall at Bendemeer Market and Food Centre on Wednesday, Ms Tan rattled off a list of ingredients that have become more expensive recently – cooking oil, sugar, garlic and onions.

As a result, Ms Tan will also raise her prices from May 1. Four pieces of chwee kueh will cost S$1.60, up from S$1.20, while eight pieces will cost S$3.20, up from S$2.40.

‘This business trip could have been a Zoom call’: Companies rethink travel

AUGUST 08, 2021

NEW YORK — Boeing chief executive officer David Calhoun has access to company aircraft as part of his job. Even so, he told an interviewer that he didn’t expect to fly nearly as much for internal company meetings after the pandemic.

Mr Calhoun, like some of his peers, found that video calls were remarkably effective for checking in with colleagues, allowing him to pack in more meetings and schedule them with minimal advance notice, according to an account in “Leading at a Distance,” a recent book by authors James Citrin and Darleen DeRosa.

“I will do as much or more customer travel, because that’s still the most important way to build relationships,” Mr Calhoun told them. “But most travel when leading big companies is visiting your own teams. I won’t be doing that nearly as much.”

There’s broad consensus that how often we fly for work and what we travel for will shift significantly post-pandemic.

SPH to restructure media business into not-for-profit entity

By TESSA OH, JANICE LIM

MAY 06, 2021

• The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will set up a new subsidiary to house its media business, with injection of initial resources, funding
• The subsidiary will eventually be transferred to a company limited by guarantee to be funded by private and public sources
• The exercise will involve transferring the entire media-related business of the conglomerate, including employees and its news and print centres

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will be restructuring its media business into a not-for-profit entity amid falling advertising revenue.

With this move — which is expected to be fully completed by October, subject to shareholders’ approval — SPH’s media business will eventually become a company limited by a guarantee, it announced on Thursday (May 6).

Commentary: US proposed global minimum corporate tax has implications for Singapore

Joe Biden’s move to raise taxes may be well-timed, given domestic demands for government expenditure and a growing global acceptance that corporate taxes must be raised. But this has implications for Singapore, says NUS Business School’s Assoc Prof Simon Poh.

By Simon Poh

13 Apr 2021

SINGAPORE: US President Joe Biden proposed an ultra-ambitious US$2.3 trillion infrastructure bill in end-March.

It was hailed as a “once-in-a-generation” investment that will reposition the US at the forefront of the global economic stage, ahead of China.

The cost will be largely funded by raising corporate tax, slated to go up from 21 per cent to 28 per cent, if the bill is passed.

This marked reversal of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump’s tax policy, which saw the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent in 2017, taps onto wider, popular calls for US Big Business to pay their fair share.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen followed up last week with calls for a global minimum corporate tax of 21 per cent for multinational corporations, signaling that a collective international effort is required to end the “30-year race to the bottom”.

These latest proposals surprised few as they were featured prominently in Joe Biden’s election campaign.

Commentary: Using the lessons of Covid-19 to tackle 4 types of inequality in Singapore

By IRENE Y H NG

APRIL 06, 2021


The writer discusses four types of inequalities in Singapore that have been spotlighted by the pandemic: Wage, digital, residency and gender.


Economists use letters to describe the shape of recovery from recessions, and the current recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is given a new letter: K.

This depicts a shape where some industries and individuals ascend, but the rest decline. In the midst of wage cuts, job losses and business closings, stock market prices have been rising and the Big Techs have been thriving.

The K-shaped trend is said to reflect existing inequalities.

In this essay, I will discuss four types of inequality in Singapore that have been spotlighted by the pandemic: Wage, digital, residency and gender.

I would like to suggest going beyond a business-as-usual response to these areas of inequality, failing which we would be wasting the lessons learned from the pandemic and the inequalities that were already there will further divide our society.

The Big Read in short: Can SIA fly high again?

By NG JUN SEN

SIA recorded its first full-year loss of S$212 million for the 12 months ending March 31, after staying profitable throughout its 48-year history. Earlier in September, it announced plans to cut around 4,300 positions, affecting around 2,400 staff.

26 September, 2020

Each week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at the challenges faced by Singapore Airlines amid the Covid-19 crisis and how it can recover post-pandemic. This is a shortened version of the full feature,​ which can be found here.

• Covid-19 had hit SIA like a bolt from the blue, at a time when it was facing mounting competitive pressures
• The pandemic hit SIA squarely on its core business model of premium, long-haul international flights — the first to be cancelled and likely the last to be restored
• Changi Airport air hub status is not guaranteed post-pandemic, as technological trends and alternative hubs pose a threat
• When the restart comes, SIA will need ready and trained personnel to jump on the wagon
• Global debate ongoing over the role of flag carriers, as the aviation industry is expected to consolidate in the months and years ahead.

Commentary: No country will survive deglobalisation

Building resilience in the current open system does not mean tearing down the entire system and starting over again, says Professor Kenneth Rogoff.
By Kenneth Rogoff

06 Jun 2020

CAMBRIDGE – The post-pandemic world economy seems likely to be a far less globalised economy, with political leaders and publics rejecting openness in a manner unlike anything seen since the tariff wars and competitive devaluations of the 1930s.

And the by-product will be not just slower growth, but a significant fall in national incomes for all but perhaps the largest and most diversified economies.

In his prescient 2001 book The End of Globalization, the Princeton economic historian Harold James showed how an earlier era of global economic and financial integration collapsed under the pressures of unexpected events during the Great Depression of the 1930s, culminating in World War II.

Singapore bank deposits jump as Hong Kong, COVID-19 sow uncertainty

05 Jun 2020

SINGAPORE: A record jump in money flowing into Singapore bank accounts from abroad underlines the country's safe haven appeal during the COVID-19 pandemic and political uncertainty in rival financial centre Hong Kong, analysts say.

Singapore fiercely competes with Hong Kong as Asia's premier wealth centre and generally attracts capital flows during regional turmoil due to its political stability and AAA credit rating.
Deposits from non-residents into Singapore's banks jumped 44 per cent to a record S$62.14 billion (US$44.37 billion) in April from a year earlier, marking the fourth straight monthly rise, central bank data showed.

Deposits have risen in all but one month over the past year, a period marked by escalating political unrest in Hong Kong, a Sino-US trade row and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.