Does singapore really enjoy surpluses every year or are we actually in debt?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...-actually-debt
DOES SINGAPORE REALLY ENJOY SURPLUSES EVERY YEAR OR ARE WE ACTUALLY IN DEBT?




Post date:
21 Feb 2015 - 11:02am












Did we went through Austerity?

“In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during adverse economic conditions. These policies may include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two Austerity policies may be attempts to demonstrate governments' fiscal discipline to their creditors and credit rating agencies by bringing revenues closer to expenditures; they may also be politically or ideologically driven. “

During the economic collapse and the great recession of 2008 , Europe and america with high unemployment and high debt ratios to gdp went through several austerities measures:

Money Printing
welfare, and other social spending are cuts
Retirement ages raised and government pensions reduced
increase in taxes
increase in fares of buses and trains

Austerity measures are pursued because of the fear that the government might not honor its debt liabilities .

Now let's look at Singapore. Singapore boasts billions in government surpluses each year and these surpluses are kept in the sovereign wealth funds. Technically, a government always in surplus doesn't need any Austerity measures as their revenues are always higher than their spending anyway.

So how come in 2008/2009, Temasek announced the lost of US$40B and several town councils lost on Lehman, then we saw:







CPF minimum sum increase
draw down age for withdrawal, postponed
utilities, increase
Bus and train fare increase
Ponzi population schemes
Public housing, increase drastically

Question: is our government in serous trouble but simply refusing to reveal it?

Why did we see such things if they government is always in surplus and has billions hoarded in reserves which are not transparent?

Singapore Government's debt ratios are high, in 2014, stand at 105.5% to the GDP. USA, with high debts still lower than Singapore, US having 101.

I understand that this is because the government's 'debt' is also calculated including what it owes citizens via the CPF model. The problem is that it can just delay withdrawal to push back having to honour the debt if and when it pleases.

In Greece, Austerity measures led to the oppositions taking control of the government. In Singapore, for the first time, a GRC fell to an oppositions.
Similarities ?

Will we see in 2016 elections more oppositions coming in ? I believed so. Whatever Singapore Government propaganda machineries , it is not going to work.

Aziz Kassim
TRS Contributor


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