SINGAPORE POSTS DROP IN GROWTH OF ECONOMY
Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2005
SINGAPORE — Singapore's economy shrank at an annual rate of 5.8 percent in the first quarter, according to figures released on Monday, exceeding the most pessimistic forecast by economists, as makers of pharmaceuticals cut production.
The decline in gross domestic product, reported by the Trade Ministry, was the first in almost two years. It compared with growth of 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
The economic report added to speculation that the central bank would seek to stimulate growth by abandoning its policy of a "modest and gradual appreciation" in the currency at a twice-yearly review on Tuesday.
The government forecasts that Singapore's growth may fall to as little as 3 percent this year from 8.4 percent last year, as exports of electronics slow.
A rebound in production of drugs may soften the slump, said Chua Hak Bin, an economist at DBS Group.
"This report tells us that the economy is slowing down, but I think it is slowing down at a moderate pace," he said. "The decline was largely due to the volatility in pharmaceuticals."
Pharmaceutical output fell because manufacturers switched to producing different chemicals and shut plants for cleaning, said Song Seng Wun, an economist at G.K. Goh.
Shutdowns and expansions cause swings in output because of the small number of factories in Singapore.
Some analysts said the vital electronics industry, accounting for nearly a third of manufacturing output and about half of non-oil exports, could post stronger output in the second quarter as global demand picks up. That would allow Singapore to avoid a recession, which occurs when an economy contracts for two consecutive quarters.
"The first quarter's contraction was driven mostly by volatility in the pharmaceuticals industry," said Euben Paracuelles, economist at DBS Bank.
"Electronics indicators show there is a likely upturn in the electronics cycle. Going forward we don't think there is a risk of recession."
Last Wednesday, the Asian Development Bank forecast that economic growth in Asia's developing nations will slow to 6.5 percent this year from a seven-year high of 7.3 percent in 2004. Growth in Singapore may slow to 4.1 percent from 8.4 percent.
Last Tuesday, Homi Kharas, the top regional economist at the World Bank, said it was planning to cut the 2005 economic growth forecast for Asia excluding Japan and the Indian subcontinent because it expected oil record prices to curb demand in Europe and Japan.
In Singapore, manufacturing, which accounts for a quarter of the economy, rose 3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, slowing from an expansion of 14.1 percent in the previous three months. In 2004, manufacturing grew by 14 percent.
"The first quarter was soft for business machines like printers and servers," said J.R. Ong, managing director of First Engineering, which supplies parts to Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology.
Singapore has offered tax breaks to lure drug makers to the island to reduce its reliance on electronics.
"For Singapore it's a double whammy from electronics and pharmaceuticals," said Nizam Idris, an economist at IDEAglobal in Singapore.
"Other Asian countries probably won't see such a sharp slowdown because they are largely affected by weaker electronics demand."
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RH:
1. Over the years, I have often read Singapore news like this one above in which the GDP drops several percent due to the pharmaceutical sector 'pills factory closed for cleaning'.
2. Now, I know that LIE KY LHL have spent billions to lure pharmaceutical companies to set up factories in Singapore BUT THE TOTAL NUMBER IS VERY SMALL, PROBABLY NO MORE THAN HALF A DOZEN. So, how is it that when 1 or 2 such pills factories close for cleaning, which they have to do now and then, THIS AFFECTS THE GDP TO THE TUNE OF SEVERAL PERCENT?
3. This means that the whole so-called pharmaceutical industry is so small it shouldn't even be called a sector. The case is exactly the same in the 'electronics sector', another grandiose term for a couple of Seagate disk drive factories. When 1 or 2 factories slow production, the effect is a couple of percent drop in the 'sector'. Thus, like every Look Good operation mounted by the LIEs, all the so-called "sectors" in Singapore's "economy" are pretty fake, false. Truth is, we don't really have an "economy", only a few factories making different products -- like pills or disk drives.
4. Thus, we have no economy, really. Only a couple of factories here and there. Everything is miniscule in scale. This means that our "GDP" is also not real GDP but a simple-to-manipulate number that very quickly and responsively responds to any incentive -- simply lure a few factories to set up in Singapore and voila! you have another "economic sector" boosting GDP several percent. And because there are so few factories, you can easily manipulate their production higher [or lower] at will, by giving incentives, etc.
5. Conclusion: Singapore has no economy. It is too miniscule an islet of 700 sq km [270 sq miles]. Singapore is not a country although it has every trapping of a country like President, Cabinet, Parliament, Ministries and even a very expensive military -- again, too miniscule. Its GDP is not real GDP but a simple sum total of a few hundreds of factory and office productions, mostly foreign. That is why, when LIE KY LHL pull out all the stops, 'GDP growth' can seem miraculous -- just a few factories increasing output. And based on these seemingly impressive GDP growth numbers, they award themselves even more millions in bonuses. Miracle workers? The most successful 'economy' and 'country'? No, more like David Copperfield illusionists.
6. How is this Great Illusion created? Here is the Secret: first, take the British-started CPF and enormously increase it to 40% of every employee's pay and bonus, the highest forced savings in the world. In just ~2 decades, you have billions and billions in govt coffers to play with, which you use to buy personal clout for yourself and big welcomes everywhere you visit, and to get Advisor positions on unscrupulous company boards who covet some of those billions invested in their companies.
7. However, CPF nominally belongs to the people, so to permanently take most of these monies, you make the British-started HDB [then called the SIT] the monopoly for 85% of all housing, then sell enormously overpriced flats at humongous profits paid for by the victims/people using their CPF monies, so they officially hand over most of their CPF monies to you. Also, to ensure they cannot take back what little is left of their CPF monies, you set rules to practically prevent any lump sum withdrawals, only small monthly sums upon reaching a very advanced age -- this is a classic pyramid scheme, with new workers CPF paying off the retired ones withdrawing their small monthly sums, so the bulk is yours to keep.
8. To further your billions, OverTax & UnderSpend on everything, from schools to hospitals, giving the moronic excuse of 'Deliberate UnderSupply For More Efficient Use of resources'. Make the people pay for everything. They cannot protest because you make it illegal to hold even a 1-man protest. You also repeatedly rig elections so need not fear being voted out. You blackmail voters into voting you or else their flats, blocks and neighbourhoods will be deliberately left to "degenerate into slums" meaning their flats' value will drop.
9. Control every mass media so that every single word or image is fawning and favourable to you. Over decades, there isn't a single negative word or image of you. Extend this papaganda to schools from kindergartens which you also build and control, to the 3 universities. Make even academics fear to criticise any of your policies by sacking some, like former lecturer Dr CHEE Soon Juan, now permanently unemployed and a bankrupt.
10. Prosecute and sue political opponents so that at every election, you are returned to power on Nomination Day itself, there being too few opposition candidates who dare contest. To ensure judges convict and find for your lawsuits, sack some like former Justice Michael KHOO. Also promote some like retired Justice Sinnathuray all the way to the Supreme Court for verdicting what you want. Promote to Chief Justice, CHAN Sek Keong when, as AG, he ridiculously refused to prosecute your son then-DPM LEE Hsien Loong together with PM GOH Chok Tong, DPM Tony TAN and PAP MP S VASOO for breaking your own law on illegal entry into polling stations as unauthorised persons.
11. Refuse to hold official commissions of inquiry when caught accepting illegal 15% discounts on purchases of luxury condos, totalling >S$1m in all for the famiLEE. Instead, hold a fake 'hearing' in Parliament and start by threatening the 2 Opposition MPs that you will sue if they dare say anything, so they kept quiet throughout. Then have every word and image airbrushed to appear innocent, cleared and angelic, by your tightly controlled media.
12. With your billions and billions, spend enough to make your little islet clean and green, very cheaply using huge hordes of cheap foreign workers, who live in exploited wretched conditions with squat toilet holes overflowing with faeces, living quarters so cramped they often catch diseases from one another such as chicken pox, etc, living in modified ship containers in secluded forest so the world cannot see the wretchedness. Spend enough on public buildings to look First World.
13. But the key to looking First World is luring the >26,000 foreign companies to locate in Singapore. This is done by giving generous incentives such as tax holidays, grants and free monies -- for example, the ~half dozen pills factories got billions in incentives. Never mind if you lose money on luring these >26,000 foreign companies, and never make money from them, they make your little islet look like the Hubs which you constantly boast of, a Hub of Hubs, etc. They are important because they do things your small little domestic rubber-slippers and plastic-pails-making companies cannot even begin to do and can never master the kind of skills needed for these truly First World foreign companies. These >26,000 foreign companies are what truly make your little islet First World. The Singaporeans they employ get good wages and learn First World skills and do First World kind of work in First World swank offices, gleaming office towers and modern factories. So, these >26,000 foreign companies are the key reasons you look First World, not anything local which you have, which are pathetically Second World at best.
14. To sum up, the real money is obtained by screwing the people, from the CPF-HDB nexus, which billions are what you see in the GIC which you make sure you and your son control. These hundreds of billions, together with more hundreds of billions in Temasek Holdings, which your daughter in law controls, give the impression of success. After all, what bigger symbol of success and First Worldness than billions? But these are all borrowed billions, which, when the tide turns and all the Bubbles burst, will have to be returned to the people one way or another, unless you let them starve and sleep in the streets. The other major component of First Worldness are the >26,000 foreign companies, lured here at great losses and expense, but which Look Good. Yes, if you use every dirty trick in the book to Look Good, you do succeed. At least, for some time until someone comes along and exposes your Secret.
Note 1: For the LIEs most recent cheap trick -- their 3rd Wave of Labour -- done as usual, to excess in the last decade or so, I highly recommend you read "ICONOCLASSING Pt 2": http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2008/06/iconoclassing-pt-2.html . The point is that, since Singapore is too miniscule to be a real economy, importing just a few thousands of foreign workers pushes up the GDP by several percent, just like luring half a dozen pills factories. Hence, the addiction to importing relatively huge numbers of foreigners. When you have no ideas or understanding of how the economy works, you are a rat pressing Green Levers and thinking you are a great success, when all you are doing is distorting the entire little, miniscule islet's education, social, economic, housing, even cultural lives into one stupendously STUPID meaningless pressing of green levers to make more marbles drop into your cage. The unthinking, meaninglessness of lab rats.
Note 2 [29 Oct 2010]: 70% of Singapore's economy is made up by government monopolies or Govt Linked Companies [GLCs]. These rapacious govt monopolies raise prices every year, for example, the bus monopoly raised bus fares 7 times in 8 years. Since the increased prices = increased 'economic' activity = increase in GDP, at least 3-4% of Singapore's annual GDP 'growth' is thus assured. The rest of GDP growth is produced by the mostly MNCs and some local companies. THESE THUS BECOME DISPROPORTIONATELY HUGE 'SWING FACTORS'. This is why whenever a couple of pills factories close for their regular cleanings, the GDP fluctuates violently, due to their being Swing Factors to the steady, assured 3-4% GDP 'growth' that comes from GLCs raising prices every year. The people are too cowed to protest or complain. This is also why the nepot famiLEE of LIE KY, 2A1B and WKS and their fellow robbers, give themselves millions in 'GDP bonuses' according to a secret formula, rewarding themselves for any GDP growth, which, as I have explained, are practically assured to the tune of 3-4% annually, simply by the GLC monopolies constantly raising prices. Thus, LIE KY pays himself >half a million dollars a MONTH, and even more for GDP 'growth'!
RH: "It's like a certain Mr LEE who pays big money to a classy, well-dressed, well-groomed lady doctor driving a Lexus to rent a room in his HDB flat and then claims he and his flat are First Class because of the lady doctor."
RH: "Another Look Good sector is Chartered SemiConductor, started with enormous billions which were all lost. But never mind, LIE KY LHL got to boast of a "high tech computer chip wafer fab sector" which boosted GDP a few percent. Also, whenever Channel NewsAsia mentions the 'economy' in a telecast, they get to show a clip of clean room technicians garbed in dustless coveralls operating robotic arms handling wafer chips. Looks Good."
RH: "Basically, the >26,000 foreign companies in Singapore are First World; the LIEgime govt and all its local industries are Second World at best; while the low income and cheap foreign workers are Third World. Generally, you cannot go from Third World to First, especially by luring high tech foreign companies and hoping their First World skills and technologies will trickle down to Singaporeans and local companies. But they do Look Good and give your little islet a First World appearance."
--
RH: ME ON VIDEO DESCRIBING lky lhl wks NUMEROUS ELECTION RIGGINGS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/Video%20RH%20on%20LKY%20LHL%20WKS%20cheating%20elections
MY ACQUAINTANCE, MR DAVID DUCLOS, A FORMER POLICE INSPECTOR, AND HIS LAWYER FRIEND, EYEWITNESSED LEE KUAN YEW RIGGING THE 1997 CHENG SAN GRC ELECTION. READ MORE AT MY BLOG ENTITLED "I CAME, I SAW, I SOLVED IT" :
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/
MY ONLINE POLICE REPORT ON LKY LHL WKS CHEATING ELECTIONS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/police-report-lee-ky-lhl-wks-cheating_02.html
THE MOST COMPLETE RUBBISHING OF LEEconomics EVER:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/most-complete-rubbishing-of-leeconomics.html
[ALSO AT THE ABOVE BLOG, LIE KUAN YEW's LIES, CORRUPTION, WRONGFUL JAILING, TORTURE AND BEATING TO DEATH OF INNOCENT POLITICAL PRISONERS LIKE MR CHAN HOCK HUA]
READ ALSO MARTYN SEE's INTERVIEW WITH ME AT:
http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/
ALSO AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2007/03/filmmaker-martyn-see-interviews-robert.html
FOR QUICK, IRREVERENT REASONS WHY LIE KY DESERVES A NOBEL:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/Not%20nominated%20for%20a%20Nobel%20so%20LIE%20KY%20gives%20himself%20many%20others
MY ARCHIVE OF WORKS AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/
PHOTOS OF LIE KY SCRATCHING MY WIFE's NEW CAR:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/LIE%20KY%20scratched%20my%20car%20S%242800%20to%20repair
NOT GUILTY BUT TORTURED, DEGRADED 15 YEARS FOR PUBLICITY, FUN
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-guilty-but-tortured-degraded-15.html
MAKING HOME MOVIES IS THIS EASY:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-home-movies-is-this-easy.html
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