Viceroymenthol 6th Gear February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 www.scmp.com/business/economy/article/1420215/singaporeans-not-wealthy-gdp-figures-suggest PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 February, 2014, 5:57am UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 February, 2014, 3:00pm Singaporeans not as wealthy as GDP figures suggest HK performs better than the Lion City on the basis of personal consumption expenditure Jake van der Kamp ... the average growth of Singapore's gross domestic product and GDP per capita has outperformed Hong Kong's over the last 45 years. Its GDP was only half that of Hong Kong more than 20 years ago. Today the Lion City's GDP is slightly ahead and GDP per capita is 25 per cent higher than in Hong Kong. Letters to the editor,SCMP, February 2 OK, let's play games with GDP numbers as these are what Singapore bureaucrats love to play and as the numbers are not quite what they seem. We shall start by conceding the headline figures. Yes, as of the latest statistical releases, GDP at prevailing rates of exchange runs at an annual rate of about US$52,000 per person of the total population in Singapore and US$37,000 in Hong Kong, which puts Singapore about 40 per cent ahead, not just 25 per cent. The point about GDP, however, is that it is meant to be a measure of wealth. It does not mean much to you unless it represents wealth that finds its way into your hands, that is, unless it takes the form of a component of GDP called personal consumption expenditure. I now refer you to the first chart. In Singapore, personal consumption expenditure has steadily fallen over the years as a percentage of GDP and, at 35 per cent, is now barely half of what it is in Hong Kong. This is an oddity characteristic of a startup economy, not of a wealthy town like Singapore. But it means that, on the basis of our money-in-your-hands measure, Hong Kong at US$24,000 per capita still outranks Singapore at US$21,000. The second chart gives you a clue as to why the two economies are so different on this measure. Industrial investment in Singapore, always predominantly foreign, has become even more so in recent years, accounting for an average of about 80 per cent of total investment over the past 10 years. I do not have the equivalent figures for Hong Kong but, at a rough guess, the foreign-local ratio would be the reverse. This foreign investment in Singapore has in turn produced a huge trade surplus in both goods and services. Over recent years, it has run at about 30 per cent of GDP. And most of this money goes right back out again to pay foreigners for all the confidence they have shown in Singapore by investing in it so heavily. In short, Singapore's high GDP numbers are mostly an anomaly created by very generous industrial concessions to foreigners. They do not really reflect domestic wealth. In another way, however, these GDP measures of Hong Kong and Singapore do not mean much as a yardstick of the comparative efficiency of either system. The fact is both are parasite economies feeding off much larger neighbours, the mainland in Hong Kong's case and Indonesia and Malaysia in Singapore's. They are both wealthy because they perform services that their neighbours cannot or, for reasons of policy, will not perform. All that their relative state of wealth really tells you is one has fewer scruples than the other about how low it is willing to go. On this measure, I definitely rate Singapore as the more successful. This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Singaporeans not as wealthy as GDP figures suggest ↡ Advertisement 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toothiewabbit Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 Massaging is what we do best! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman888 Moderator February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 err.... 20% go to cpf cannot touch, of course the 'money not in my hand' but still it helps to pay off property which is cheaper the HK. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viceroymenthol 6th Gear February 5, 2014 Author Share February 5, 2014 Will Yaacob ban SCMP from circulation? Will PM Lee engage Senior Counsel to sue SCMP in Singapore court until their pants drop? Stay tuned! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockngbrd Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 no wonder i dun feel rich when i see my cpf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman888 Moderator February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 Will Yaacob ban SCMP from circulation? Will PM Lee engage Senior Counsel to sue SCMP in Singapore court until their pants drop? Stay tuned! this type of information need to sue meh? nothing personal or attacking the system, just analysing the numbers from another angle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShepherdPie 5th Gear February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 Errr... spending habit of sg is different from hk... Almost everyone wear branded in hk.. They dun spend on cars though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanK Supercharged February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 no wonder i dun feel rich when i see my cpf I feel lecherous when I see your avatar... got 2 brown browns Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viceroymenthol 6th Gear February 5, 2014 Author Share February 5, 2014 this type of information need to sue meh? nothing personal or attacking the system, just analysing the numbers from another angle. Singapore's civil servants' promotion and salaries are tied to GDP figure. What is GDP? You tear a building down, break a road surface up, then rebuild and re-patch, it goes into GDP. May not benefit the ordinary people. Do we all understand that? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockngbrd Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 I feel lecherous when I see your avatar... got 2 brown browns tikopek ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahgong Supercharged February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 Singapore's civil servants' promotion and salaries are tied to GDP figure. What is GDP? You tear a building down, break a road surface up, then rebuild and re-patch, it goes into GDP. May not benefit the ordinary people. Do we all understand that? I do. but majority of people don't. that is the problem. that is why using GDP as a yardstick for those civil SERVANTs, is a sham~! you never noticed, second half of the year always got a shit load of re-construction. tear up a perfectly good road/pavement, only to re-pave it the exact same way it was before it was torn up. sometimes, it is really disgusting to see it happening. but there is nothing you or I could do to stop it~! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kb27 Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 (edited) pappy like to play with numbers. You won't get the real truth out of them. But that's bcuz you can't handle the truth. Edited February 5, 2014 by Kb27 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soya Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 aiya......scmp obviously neber heard of MCF. radx and T2 alone will trash HK sup sup sui. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kangadrool Supersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 I do. but majority of people don't. that is the problem. that is why using GDP as a yardstick for those civil SERVANTs, is a sham~! you never noticed, second half of the year always got a shit load of re-construction. tear up a perfectly good road/pavement, only to re-pave it the exact same way it was before it was torn up. sometimes, it is really disgusting to see it happening. but there is nothing you or I could do to stop it~! The most disgusting is those walls on EW MRT line. They torn down the tiles and puttied cement + paint over it. The paint keep peeling off and they keep patching the paint back. [bigcry] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ender Hypersonic February 5, 2014 Share February 5, 2014 (edited) GDP si simi lai? That's the question most average s'porean is asking. Gahment publish the figure goes up, but the people don't see how does it affect their livelihood. Edited February 5, 2014 by Ender 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahgong Supercharged February 6, 2014 Share February 6, 2014 GDP si simi lai? That's the question most average s'porean is asking. Gahment publish the figure goes up, but the people don't see how does it affect their livelihood. exactly. and the way to boost GDP numbers is to make a lot of transactions to the ledger. when you spend money, and have money coming in, it is recorded as part of the GDP. hence the massive construction and re-construction works... etc. All these activities records money movement. and these money movement goes towards the GDP. it is meaningless to the man in the street. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyfitms Twincharged February 6, 2014 Share February 6, 2014 how come like that one? issit because it is peg to someone's bonus? LOL 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahgong Supercharged February 6, 2014 Share February 6, 2014 how come like that one? issit because it is peg to someone's bonus? LOL no need to explicitly say lah. you know i know everybody knows ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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