MARKET UPDATES :
- CONTRARY to expectations, Singapore’s manufacturing sector slipped into contraction mode in November. Factory output declined 2.8 per cent year on year, as production in all clusters except electronics and precision engineering declined. The 17 economists polled by Bloomberg, before the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) released the numbers on Friday, had been expecting industrial production to rise by 0.3 per cent. Excluding the volatile biomedical sector – which contracted 1.1 per cent last month – output would have fallen by a larger 3.1 per cent.
- THE Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) has come up with this recommendations, based on feedback from its Pre-Budget 2015 Survey:
- Further widen coverage of Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) and Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) schemes;
- Arrest further cost increases in foreign worker policy or tightening of quota, and offer medical and insurance subsidies to encourage the hiring of older Singaporean workers aged 55 and above;
- Engage in more consultation with trade associations or businesses before introducing new government policies to ease compliance costs;
- Provide targeted funding for SMEs to venture into the Asean market to seize opportunities arising from the impending single Asean market in 2015.
