Though SG economy expected to grow faster than originally predicted, not all is rosy: Kumaran Pillai

Singapore — Responding to a report by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) that said the economy is expected to expand faster than originally predicted, Mr Kumaran Pillai noted that not all was rosy.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (Jun 17), entrepreneur and publisher of The Independent Singapore Kumaran Pillai cautioned: “Don’t be too quick to celebrate”.

He explained that there were mixed reports about the economy.

According to the MAS report, economists have increased their growth forecast for the manufacturing sector from 4.7 per cent to 8.3 per cent. As for finance and insurance, expansion is now being forecast at 6 per cent, up from the previous 5.8 per cent. In line with this, they also predict that non-oil domestic exports will expand by 7.5 per cent, as opposed to the earlier forecast of 6.9 per cent.

In his post, Mr Pillai noted that though the manufacturing and finance sectors are thriving in this economic environment, many small businesses have had to shut their doors permanently due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

He continued: “what this really means is that we have dual track economy where the small local business are on the slow lane while the businesses serving the international markets are thriving”.

Mr Pillai called for a more targeted approach to policymaking.”We need to figure out how to help the retail businesses get back on their feet,” he added.

He also wrote that digitalisation may be one way to help turn things around for retail outlets and smaller businesses, “but the bigger issue is that older less savvy folks are getting left behind”. /TISG