Hi everyone,

I'm Leslie Lee (2I313), the leader for our Inter-Disciplinary '09 Group. Mainly for this year's IDS, we would be focusing on the recent Economic Recession, which has severely affected the world's economy.

Here are some details about our group:

• Group Leader- Leslie Lee (2I313)
• Secretary/Formatting- Nicholas Lau (2I311)
• Technical Consultant- Lee Kun Siang (2I312)
• Quality Control(Chinese)- Lee Zi Jing (2I314)
• Quality Control(English)- Lim Jun Ming (2I315)

Below are the tasks that we have set for ourselves:

• News Article-(English)[Topic: How singaporeans view and react to the economic recession]
• News Article-(Chinese)[Topic: NDP rally speech - PM Lee promises more]
• News Article-(English)[Topic:Strategies for banks to cope with the financial downturn in Singapore]
  
• Feature Article-(English)[Topic: Daily life of the newly retrenched]
• Feature Article-(Chinese)[Topic: Reducing the cost of daily expenditure in light of the economic crisis]
• Financial Report-[Topic: Economic Growth Indicators: News reports often quote percentages for economic growth and shrinkage forecasts. How exactly are these numbers derived??]
• Household Financial Statement[on Lee Kun Siang]
• Advertisements- Investment Packages/ Insurances

EDIT:
We will be adding another News Article on Strategies for banks to cut cost in the economic downturn-Nicholas 


Please use the navigation links to navigate

posted by blackfire123 at 8:25 AM


posted by blackfire123 at 9:47 PM

 


Family
• Kun Siang is an only child
• Lives with his parents


Expenditure:

Type                                         Area of expense                                     Cost
Food                                    Market (Eating at home)                            $360
                                                  Eating out                                            $240
Transport                               Public transport                                         $60
                                                      Car                                                  $240
Household                                Necessities                                            $350
                                           Leisure/Entertainment                                  $250
                                            Family Outings                                           $100
Bills                                      Credit Card bill                                         $350
                                              Utilities bill                                               $400
                                              Phone bills                                               $150
                                                                                              TOTAL: $2500

Income:
Father: $1900 (Admin. Manager)
Mother: $1600 (Tuition teacher)
Total Income: $3500

Savings: $3500 – $2500
= $1000

With the economic crisis, Kun Siang’s household needs to save up more money, such that if anything worse happens, they will have money to fall back on. How?

Cutting costs

Food

Though his household’s expenditure is such that it spends more on eating at home than eating out, it is notable that eating out is always the more expensive option. His family will be able to save a tidy sum by eating self-cooked food more often. By right, savings could increase by at least $50 if his family ate out less.

Transport

It can be seen that Kun Siang’s family spends four times more money on the car than for public transport. Though slower, taking public transport can help to save quite a lot. Taking public transport costs a dollar or two each time. On the other hand, driving has parking fees, road tax, fuel, maintenance, and the occasional fine. Clearly, public transport is going to cut a lot of expenses, at least $100.

Household

To spend $250 on simply leisure and entertainment is quite a huge sum. Perhaps his household could sacrifice some of their comforts, and enjoy themselves in a cheaper but still satisfactory way. For example, his family could lavish themselves less on clothing, and save that money up for a rainy day. The same can be said of going to the arcades thrice a week, watching movies every week, or spending money for another laptop despite having another one. This can save up to $250.

Bills

Kun Siang’s household has alarmingly high bills. The credit card bill shows a tendency of his family to splurge on perhaps unnecessary items, and the best way to lower it is to simply have self-control.
As for the utilities bill, spending $400 for a family of three is a lot. To cut down on this bill, the easiest solution is to save more electricity and water. Everyday things like turning off the tap, reusing clean water, showering instead of bathing, replacing faulty pipes and taps, and using a pail instead of a hose to clean the car, is going to save a lot of water. Electricity can be saved by switching off appliances when not in use, using the fan instead of the air-con, and not wasting it by staying up all night on the computer just to play computer games and listening to music. This will be effective in reducing the utilities bill, by at least $250.
As for the phone bill, $150 is also quite high. Simple things like not overspending your phone plans, by having the common sense not to send more messages or make more calls than was allowed, will cut this bill by at least $100.


New Savings

Current savings/month= 1000+100+100+250+250= 1800.

Increase in savings= 1800-1000= 800

posted by blackfire123 at 9:42 PM

Financial Report- Key Economic Indicators for Singapore


1) Introduction:

This financial report shows the key economic indicators of Singapore, showing the effects of the downturn on expenditure in the current Singapore society, which is plagued by the global economy recession. Following the global economic recession that struck every country since the third quarter of 2009, Singapore's economy has also taken a serious plunge, which is the most serious shrink in economy for Singapore ever since the Great Depression during the 1930s.

Statistics below show the economic shrinkage for each quarter in 2008, and the first two quarters of 2009. Analysis of the data, as well as the evaluation of the repercussions of the statistics, is also included in this financial report. For this financial report, we would be focusing on Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).


2) Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services made by the nation in a year. This is a basic measure of a country's economic performance, to determine whether a country is growing or shrinking in terms of its economy, or in other words, the national income. Final goods refer to goods that are produced and sold ultimately as one, but not as a single component or part. "Gross" refer to before deductions, in this case before subtracting away the deprecation of capital stock. "Domestic" means within the countries, which means that Domestic Products refer to products produced within the country only. GDP is most commonly counted as the total expenditures for all final goods and services produced within the country in a year. The formula is shown below:

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)

Below is a table showing Singapore’s GDP for 2008:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)	2008 Q2	   2008 Q3    2008 Q4	 2009 Q1  2009 Q2
At Current Market Prices ($m)  63,292.0  64,637.7    64,309.1	59,237.2  61,204.4
At 2000 Market Prices ($m)     58,451.9  59,376.0    56,581.8	53,485.2  56,399.1
Growth per quarter (%)	          2.5       0.0	       - 4.2	 - 9.5	    - 3.5

3) Analysis of data and Evaluation of repercussions

From Singapore’s GDP of each quarter, starting from the second quarter of 2008 to second quarter of 2009, we can see that the GDP is starting to decline from the third quarter of 2008 till the first quarter of 2009. From then onwards, the economy started picking up, thus having a 6% increase in GDP from the first quarter to third quarter of 2009. During the 2nd quarter of 2008, the economy is still boosting, although there were already some signs of strains. When the global economic recession affected the US, and then the global economy in the 3rd quarter of 2008, the GDP started declining because of the decrease in demand by the other countries, thus causing a decline in production and eventually, the GDP. This declining trend continued to 2009, in which it was the worst in the first quarter of 2009, reaching –9.5%. This is when the economy was at rock bottom. During the 2nd quarter, the economy saw a sudden increase, thus causing a huge increase in global demand, thus the GDP went up to -3.5%. This truly reflects the trend of the global economy, which started declining in the last two quarters of 2008, but slowly picked up from the 2nd quarter of 2009.

From this, we can see that the economy of Singapore depends directly on the US economy. The Lehman brother collapse in August 2008 has caused widespread panic among the investors, thus leading to a sudden and severe plunge in the 3rd quarter of 2008, due to the decrease in number of investments. Since then, many other banks either declared bankrupt or almost collapsed, some of which included Bank of Switzerland. This global recession, which was the most serious since the 1930s Great Depression, continued in 2008 and 1st quarter of 2009. However, due to the help from the US government, as well as the European Union, both of whom brought shares from collapsing companies to prevent them from going bankrupt, the global economy managed to pick up in the 2nd quarter of 2009. China also helped boost Asia’s economy in terms of production and exports. Thus, Singapore’s economy and GDP also fluctuated along with the global economy.

However, Singapore’s GDP in the 2nd quarter is still a negative digit, and is very far from what it was before the global economic recession. This shows that the trend of the global economy is still unclear, as we might not know if the economy is going to turn for the better, or for the worse. Despite this, we can see that in the third quarter of 2009, the economy is slowly recovering. Although the GDP for the 3rd quarter is still not calculated, we can expect an increase in the GDP, and thus the economy, for this quarter, after doing well in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and the first half of 2009’s 3rd quarter (July and August). This clearly shows that Singapore’s economy is slowly getting out of the negative effects of the economic recession. Since Singapore’s economy depends on the US’, this means that the US economy, and eventually the global economy, will start to pick up soon, possibly in the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2009, as well as the 1st quarter of 2010.

4) Conclusion

As Singapore’s economy depends on the US and global one, we can only hope for the US economy to turn for the better, after how well we have done in the 2nd quarter of 2009. However, despite this increase in the economy, we still have to be careful, as the global economy, and Singapore’s, is still on a very dangerous end, and might turn for the worse at any moment. Thus, we can only hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

5) References

• Ministry of Trade and Industry:

http://app.mti.gov.sg/default.asp?id=489

• Singapore Statistics:

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/keyind.html

• Wikipedia- Gross Domestic Product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDP

6) Done By:

IDS ’09 eNewsletter Editorial Team (2I3 Group 3):

Nicholas Lau (2I311)
Lee Kun Siang (21312)
Leslie Lee (2I313)
Lee Zi Jing (2I314)
Lim Jun Ming (2I315)



posted by blackfire123 at 9:28 PM

如何在经济衰退的情况下减少日常生活的花费



 

posted by blackfire123 at 9:21 PM

Daily life of the newly retrenched
     By Lee Kun Siang



"It's depressing," says Mr Lim Ming Le, 50. Mr Lim, a bachelor, was out of a job as a result of the economic crisis that has everyone worried.

He is currently living off his savings, and his future looks grim, as his savings are depleting extremely fast.

Mr Lim was once a professional working in the retail industry. "I once made three, four thousand dollars as a salesman, plus commission", Mr Lim laments. "Overnight, my company closed down and suddenly, I was without a job."

"Now, I have to lead a frugal lifestyle."

He is not alone. Ms Toh Mei Lin lost her job as a clerk, and is now is also living on savings and aid from family. Many more have gone out of a job. Everywhere, even in one's homely coffeeshop, one can see people frantically searching the recruitment sections of newspapers, desperately huntingffor a job.

Everywhere in Singapore, Singaporeans are feeling the pinch of the economic crisis, and pinching pennies accordingly.

According to NTUC Fairprice, a leading chain of supermarkets, their budget house brand products are now more in demand than ever.

"Singaporeans are now more conscious of their expenditure, and often purchase products with better value for money." says a spokeman for NTUC. "Consumers are spending less and less. Supermarkets around Singapore are all feeling the crunch, with profits seeing a dropping trend."

"We do find that unemployment does affect our business," he admits when asked about the impact of the increased rates of unemployment.

"Retrenched people can't be expected to spend much when they're already out of a job."

Indeed, the economic crisis has caused Singapore's unemployment rate to go on the rise. In April 2009, the unemployment rate has reached a whopping 4.8%, the highest unemployment rate ever since the SARS season in 2003. In the second quarter of the year, unemployment rate has reached an average of 3.7%, showing the severity of the economic recession.

"Growth in the global economy as well as in Singapore last year fell well below what was expected." said Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam. "We are now in the midst of a simultaneous recession in all major regions of the world. Prospects for 2009 remain highly uncertain."

However, Minister of Manpower, Mr Lee Boon Yang, remains positive about the current economic situation, and promises to reduce the unemployment rate as much as possible. He tells the press, "Despite the current economic recession, we must still adopt a positive attitude. The government is also doing as much as we can to reduce the unemployment rate by creating more jobs for Singaporeans. One example would be the job opportunities available in the Integrated Resorts. It is estimated that the two Integrated Resorts would create approximately 30,000 jobs for Singaporeans. There are also many job fares that offer as much as 10,000 jobs of all variety. However, Singaporeans ourselves also have to be more open when looking for jobs, in terms of the job scope and variety. Instead of being fickle-minded, we have to change our attitude such that we are willing to take up all kinds of jobs. Upgrading one's skills is also very important in helping one find jobs."

Indeed, more Singaporeans are being more open-minded when looking for jobs. Instead of simply looking for jobs that they are most familiar with, Singaporeans are looking to a wide variety of job opportunities. Mr Koh Ho Shin, who just found a job as a receptionist after being retrenched from his managerial occupation, is a testimony to this statement.

It is true that our economic prospects are very grim now, with unemployment rate expected to continue rising. However, if the government, citizens and external organisations can work together, the economic situation would definitely improve over time, and unemployment rate would also be reduced. While the government do all they can to create job opportunities for Singaporeans, as well as reduce the retrenchment rate in companies, Singaporeans themselves have to do their utmost by grabbing all the job oppotunities they receive, and also by upgrading their skills. With this, unemployment would not be a major problem to the Singaporeans.   
posted by blackfire123 at 9:19 PM

Strategies for Industries to cope with Economic Recession
         Done by Leslie Lee



Many industries are currently struggling under the economic recession, which has brought about a worldwide plunge in every country’s economy. Singapore is also a victim of this global economic crisis, with many businesses in all aspects of Singapore’s industries fighting for survival.

Banshing Industrial is one of the many companies in Singapore that has been directly and severely affected by the global financial tsunami. Having been in this industry for nearly 35 years, Banshing Industrials mainly focus on plastic and metal stamping operations, producing goods such as mobile phone casings and walkie-talkies. Some of its major customers include Mobile Phone company Motorola and Electronic company Philips.

This company has sustained two losses ever since the company started out, once in 2003 due to the SARS epidemic, and the other being this. According to company founder Albert Cheng, “the current economic crisis has been the greatest challenge the company has encountered, having to deal with the drop in revenue and the rising cost of raw materials”. Indeed, the impact this time has been greater than the ones they felt during the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, and the 2003 SARS epidemic.

After a decline in the demand in production by Motorola, the company’s revenue has been greatly affected. This current economic downturn has added to its troubles, hampering most of the company’s operations and plans, as well as causing the company to suffer more losses.

Despite the current economic crisis, Mr Cheng still feels fortunate about the company’s situation, due to some measures that the company has taken before and during the economic recession. Before the economic crisis, the company focused on developing its core operations, instead of applying for bank loans to invest in property markets and other industries. This prevented them from relying on banks, which is now on the verge of collapse. Not choosing to make this company public is also a wise move, as its gives the company more time to focus on developing its resources.

In the face of the economic crisis, Banshing Industrial is searching for new customers, providing more services, diversifying its source of income and cutting costs to reduce losses to the minimum.

With an increase in orders from Siemens, as well as providing other value-added services such as spray-painting, Banshing Industrial’s performance is predicted to improve, showing that its strategies are working.

Despite not earning much profit, Mr Cheng still insists on the policy of not laying off workers. Mr Cheng tells us, “Retrenching workers is not a long-term plan. With the reduction in the amount of workers, we would not be able to continue some of our operations. Laying off workers will also demoralise the other workers’ morale.” Instead of laying off workers, the company is looking to saving on electricity overtime. “If needed, we will only reduce workers overtime.”

When asked about experiences learnt from this economic recession, Mr Cheng says, “Last time, I was planning to take more risks when the economy. However, now, I think that it is better to be more conservative.”

 Banshing Industrial is a good example of using good strategies to reduce losses to the minimum in times of economic downturn. They managed to have profit, while not having to lay off workers. This was achieved by useing less electricity during overtime. As can be seen, with effective strategies, it is not difficult to survive despite the economic recession.
posted by blackfire123 at 9:14 PM



posted by blackfire123 at 9:08 PM

How Singaporeans view and react to the current economic recession?
By Nicholas Lau

Singapore is heavily reliant on exports and imports to keep its economy running, and the global slowdown has resulted in a significant decline in international and regional trade, leading to our economy suffering a severe downturn. This is known to be the worst recession in Singapore since independence in 1965. Due to the economy crisis, companies have been going bankrupt, and more people are being retrenched, leading to an increased number of people on the lookout for jobs. Furthermore, the economic downturn’s effects are intensified by the current swine flu outbreak, which affected trade, tourism and business, and led to even more job losses.

During this economic unrest, how do Singaporeans view, and react, to the recession?

In fact, most Singaporeans, know about the economic recession, but think that they are not affected by it. Furthermore, most do not know how the recession was caused, and the recession in detail. Also, Singaporeans do not really save money until they are personally hit by the recession, in one way or another. This can be seen from Singaporeans spending a lot of money during the annual great Singapore sale (GSS). According to credit card figures released by MasterCard, the first GSS weekend saw Singapore cardholders chalking up bills S$38.3 million which is an increase of seven per cent from the same period last year, also, the number of transactions Singaporeans made in the first weekend using credit cards rose 15 per cent from last year to 283,703 this year, even though there is the economic recession to consider when spending. This can be seen not only from the GSS, but also from the fact that Singaporeans are still thronging travel fairs, IT fairs, clubs, shopping centres and swanky restaurants.

We interviewed Ms Tan, an office worker, about the economic recession, and she tells us that she does not think that her spending is limited, and that she still spends as much per month on clothes, and other items. She says, “I don’t think that the economic recession is as bad as some it looks to be. As compared to the 1998 Asian Economic Disaster, this is not so serious after all. The Singapore government has been very efficient in implementing counter measures to prevent the recession from spreading excessively. My daily spending is not really affected too.”

However, there are also people who worry about the effects of the recession on their daily life. These people find ways to cut cost so as to save money to tide them through the recession. From choosing cheaper alternatives as compared their more expensive cousins, to cooking instead of patronising restaurants. In this way, more money can be saved for daily essential usage, and for rainy days.

For example, Mrs Lee, a housewife, stated in an interview, that she would try to cut down on her family’s daily expenses. She informs us that by not using the air con in the day, and turning off electrical appliances when not in use, she has saved about fifty to eighty dollars per month on electrical bills. She tells us that when she goes to the supermarket, she would try to buy the cheapest alternatives to the things that she usually buys, such as food products, clothes and household essentials. Another way of saving money and cutting cost would be taking public transport to work instead of driving, which is practiced by MR Joshin Koh, allowing him to save up to a hundred dollars a month.

From this, we can see that Singaporeans hold two views towards the current economic recession. Although this might be the worst recession in Singapore since independence in 1965, we can still see that some people do not feel affected by the bad state of the economy. However, there are also, at the same time, some who feel that the downturn is very serious, and they must cut spending in order to survive. As the economic recession continues to plague Singapore, we must not take the recession too lightly, yet maintain a positive outlook on the financial situation of Singapore.
posted by blackfire123 at 8:09 PM