Blogs

Some might think it premature to say this but we’ll say it anyway. The worst of the COVID pandemic is over. Yes, there will be occasional new waves of infections and there will even be episodic scares about new variants. But the number of fatalities, the strain on medical systems and the damage done to economic activity from each new wave

One of the most important questions in financial markets today is inflation. Over the past few months, investors have begun to worry that ultra-loose monetary and fiscal policies will trigger a sharp and persistent rise in prices across the board around the world once the worst of the pandemic is over.

The restructuring of Singapore Press Holdings has aroused much controversy. But we need to go beyond the media sector and the company itself because the issue raises far more important questions about the corporate sector overall and what it means for Singapore’s future.

What a difference a decade makes. The last time the world economy exited from a recession, in 2010 after the global financial crisis, China’s share of global output was roughly 10%. Today it is around 18% while its share of world imports today is around 10%, up from about 8% in 2010.

As 2020 drew to a close, the World Trade Organisation reported that the number of new trade restrictions being introduced by governments across the world had actually fallen in 2020 compared to 2019. This was partly because the US-China trade deal agreed in January 2020 had helped to ease US-China trade tensions, thereby bringing to an end the tit-for-tat series of trade measures each side had been imposing on the other in 2017 and 2018.