Up and up for Singapore’s decade-high inflation

Monetary Authority of Singapore is on the regional vanguard of central banks reining in loose monetary policies

Consumer prices in Singapore are at a decade-high and projected to “pick up sharply” in the coming months according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as the trade-reliant city-state grapples with global supply constraints, soaring commodity prices and a tight domestic labor market.

For Singaporeans, this has meant higher household power bills and transportation costs, increased fees for services, as well as pricier chicken rice at hawker centers. With the island nation having eased nearly all Covid-19 curbs, the post-pandemic era is rapidly being defined by cost pressures on consumer-facing sectors.

Singapore’s central bank said global developments, in particular the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have worsened the external inflation outlook, leading it to forecast in its half-yearly macroeconomic review published on April 28 that core inflation will peak in the third quarter as energy price increases filter through to local electricity and gas tariffs.

The core inflation rate – MAS’ favored price measure – outpaced economist forecasts with a rise of 2.9% year-on-year in March, the sharpest increase since March 2012. Headline or overall inflation, which includes private transport and accommodation, rose to 5.4%, the fastest since April 2012, prompting MAS to revise its projections earlier this month.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

What premier-in-waiting Wong means for Singapore

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong leveraged his previous role in managing the pandemic to pip rival People’s Action Party candidates

Until a few years ago, Singapore’s Finance Minister Lawrence Wong was a relatively little-known civil servant turned politician. But on April 14, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) endorsed him as leader of its fourth-generation (4G) team, putting him in line to become the city-state’s next prime minister.

The announcement of a confirmed successor to long-serving Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, whose eventual exit after roughly two decades will mark a major turning point in the nation’s politics, has appeared to put minds at ease, with 49-year-old Wong now well-positioned to cast himself as a symbol of Singapore’s meritocracy.

Few previously considered Wong a potential national leader, but analysts say his competent performance as co-chairman of a multi-ministry task force leading Singapore’s Covid-19 response has proven pivotal to his rise, allowing him to cultivate an affable public image and ultimately win the confidence of his governing party peers.

What is less clear is how Wong, who would only be Singapore’s fourth leader since achieving independence, intends to step out of Lee’s shadow to fashion his own brand of leadership as the new face of the historically-dominant PAP at a time when the city-state’s politics are becoming more hotly contested amid rising calls for greater diversity in parliament.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Hopes for 1MDB justice fast fading away

US court conviction of ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng stands in stark contrast to slow-moving proceedings in Malaysia

Justice came swiftly for Roger Ng, the 49-year-old former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs Malaysia. After an eight-week US federal court trial, Ng was found guilty by a jury in Brooklyn, New York of violating anti-corruption laws and conspiring to launder billions from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, state development fund.

But in Malaysia itself, delays in prosecuting alleged crimes linked to the globe-spanning financial scandal is for many a rising source of frustration, one that is emboldening criminally convicted former premier Najib Razak, who is seeking to overturn his own 1MDB-related guilty verdict and 12-year jail sentence.

Portraying himself as the victim of a political conspiracy, Najib has mounted a strong political comeback while free on bail despite his conviction for money laundering, criminal breach of trust and abuse of power in July 2020 in the first of five corruption trials he faces. He denies all wrongdoing and is waiting for a date to be set for his final appeal hearing on his conviction.

The speedy US conviction of Ng, also known by his birth name Ng Chong Hwa, is spurring calls for 1MDB-related trials in Malaysia to be expedited. US trial testimony directly implicated the ex-premier and his wife Rosmah Mansor, while also raising questions about the involvement of others – a fact Najib’s legal team is now attempting to leverage to the ex-premier’s advantage.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Lee shines light on a US-China middle path

But Singapore leader’s balancing act is under stress amid perceptions he has sided with the West against Beijing’s ally Russia

In Washington, some label him a “Beijing whisperer.” It’s a characterization Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong laughed off during his recent eight-day trip to the United States, where the two nations affirmed their strong defense ties and the long-serving premier emphasized America’s enduring presence as crucial to the Asia-Pacific’s continued “peace, stability and prosperity.”

But it was other aspects of Lee’s messaging that Chinese state media highlighted and spun, namely his call for America’s leaders to engage and accommodate China – Singapore’s largest trading partner – “on a win-win basis,” and to think harder about avoiding paths to a great power conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

Should the US fail to heed Singapore’s advice, “reality will teach it a profound lesson,” blared a recent editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper that cited Lee’s past remarks that Washington should not force Asian nations to take sides, charging that such “voices of reason” are often ignored in a bid to counter China’s rise.

The publication acknowledged the wealthy city-state as having “achieved a relatively good balance between China and the US.” But a deepening global divide between so-called democratic and autocratic camps following Russia’s shock invasion of Ukraine may put Singapore in greater danger of wobbling as it straddles a diplomatic tightrope.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.