Singaporeans Bunker Down for the Global Financial Crisis

56% expect local economy to perform better than our neighbors

Singapore, November 6, 2008: The global financial crisis has become an omnipresent spectre for the people of Singapore. No one can escape the overwhelming media coverage of the billions of dollars being poured into the world’s financial systems by governments desperate to avoid a meltdown of their most fundamental institutions.

What does this all mean for Singaporeans? How do we feel about the crisis and what does it mean to us? What are we doing about it? What do we think will happen?

Universal McCann, a media communications agency, surveyed 400 people aged 20 to 50 years to find out some answers as we move towards the end of 2008. The survey was conducted between October 20 and 25^th.

Key results:

· 72% of the Singaporean residents expect the global economy to turn for the worse in the next six months. Only 12% were upbeat in their expectations of the global economy, believing that it will be better, and only 16% believed that it will remain the same.

· Their perspective on the local economy is pretty much correlated with this belief: 67% of the 400 Singaporeans aged 20-50 that were polled are of the belief that the local economy will also turn for the worse in the next 6 months, with only 19% believing that it will remain the same and the rest (14%) believing that it will be better.

· These negative perspectives are in line with people’s expectations of the local stock market’s performance: 68% believe that the local stock market is yet to hit rock-bottom, turning for the worse in the next six months, with only one in three (32%) believing that it will remain at least the same or grow.

· 71% say that job opportunities are going to be tighter in the next six months, and close to 60% believe prices of household and food items will be a challenge in the next 6 months.

· In the real-estate sector, 69% of people expect a decline in value in the next 6 months as the economic downturn takes its toll in Singapore.

Rays of Hope

While there is some negativity in the market, there are signs of confidence and hope among Singaporeans: About 64% expect their personal financial situation in the next six months to be the same or even better. Close to 70% are secure in their household financial situation, with opportunities of getting slightly better in the next six months.

In fact, Singaporeans believe that the local economy is better poised than our neighboring countries to weather the economic storm. More than half (56%) of Singaporeans surveyed believe the economy is going to fare better than its neighboring countries.

Against major economies such as the US and the UK, the epicenters of the global economic slowdown, only 21% believe that Singapore is going to perform worse than these economies. Twice this amount – 40% – believe that Singapore is going to fare better than these major economies.