IPS, 24 Mar 2009, Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE, Mar 24 (IPS) - This tiny island republic sits on trillions of dollars in foreign reserves. Yet, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a BBC interview this month that his country cannot spend its way out of the economic downturn, until the global economy heals.
Singapore, which has no natural resources and a population of only four million has been badly bruised by the global economic turmoil and the latest figures by the Development Bank of Singapore says 99,000 people will be laid off this year.
For the first time since its founding in 1965, Singapore has had to dip into its foreign reserves to help fund a 13.7 billion US dollar ‘Resilience Package’ announced in the budget in January.
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