SINGAPORE, Jan 16 — Singapore will do well if it manages to achieve an annual economic growth of 2 to 3 per cent for the next five years, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was quoted as saying today.
The economy has reached a stage of its development where it is no longer possible to expand by 5 to 6 per cent each year, Lee said in an interview with tdomestic media.
His comments came after data earlier this month showed that full-year growth for 2014 slowed to 2.8 per cent from 3.9 per cent in 2013, tempered by an uneven global recovery and lacklustre exports.
“Domestically, we have to get used to what that means. Three per cent (growth) per year means wages will go up correspondingly, gradually, year by year,” the Business Times quoted Lee as saying.
“Maybe not every year, but over four to five years you will see improvements if we are successful in our policies,” he said.
While Singaporeans have to accept a slower pace of growth, the government would do all it could to help people through this period of economic restructuring, Lee said.
The government has pushed to reduce a politically unpopular reliance on foreign workers, leading to a tight labour market which is affecting construction and retail sectors.
Singapore also introduced a series of property cooling measures over the past few years, triggering a 4 per cent decline in private residential property prices in 2014, the first annual decline since 2008. — Reuters
