Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Chinatown Festive Market

Lunar New Year was supposed to be one of the most celebrated events in Singapore (and around the world). However, the arrival of the festival does not seem to have injected much joyous mood nor increase in sales. Vendors at Chinatown’s festive markets have been rather conservative (pessimistic) in their expectations in sales.

I think the pictures will give a better idea on the festive shopping mood in Singapore

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Monday, January 12, 2009

Lo and Behold – 2009

Today is the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of United States. This much-anticipated ceremony offers respite, albeit a calming rather than a rally effect in the stock market.


While Americans rejoice over the change in Presidency and hope for better days ahead, people are still apprehensive and doubtful if Obama will be able to save U.S. economy. The proliferation of toxic debts and assets seems to have caused a ripple effect to the rest of the world. The end may not be in sight with more financial institutions posting losses and MNCs conducting retrenchment exercises.


It has been almost 3 weeks since the crossover to 2009. The start has been far from welcoming though – The Middle-East is now embroiled in another war (Israel against Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon) even before any real success is met in Afghanistan and Iraq. The sluggish world economy has still not shown any signs of picking up. RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) seemed to escape unscathed amidst the initial financial melt-down but has since posted a loss of more than $30 billion in 2008, due largely to purchase of ABN AMRO.


Singaporeans are very much affected by the current crisis, with more to lose jobs in the first two quarters of 2009. The perpetual gloom is far from over. Negative growth is also expected and optimists believe that the market may pick up in the second half of the year. I for one, believe that this crisis will hit hard – definitely harder than the Asian Economic Crisis, yet leave earlier than many others believe (some thinks it will be 2011 before the entire market thaws – I beg to differ). The recovery I believe will take place in end 2009/early 2010. This is due to the global economy slowly becoming less “reliant” on U.S. This may be the right time for new economic powerhouses like China and India to takeover the reins from U.S.(though Japan is a likely candidate in the running as well).


However, these emerging economies would need coordinated efforts to put their industries back on track with support from other countries (e.g. Asian nations). This is besides fighting terrorism and fixing their quality control problems (China).