Singapore exports and stock prices fall, casinos approved

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports contracted by 6.7 per cent in March 2005 on a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, reversing the 7.9 per cent increase in February 2005. Non-oil retained imports of intermediate goods (NORI), on the other hand, posted a 3.9 per cent increase on a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis in March 2005, reversing the 3.9 per cent contraction in February 2005.

This news, however, was largely overshadowed yesterday by the announcement by the Singapore government that it will build two integrated resorts incorporating casinos. The government expects the resorts to be ready around 2009 and hopes they will attract investments in the order of S$5 billion and help create some 35,000 jobs.

The other big news yesterday was the huge drubbing that stocks in Singapore took -- the Straits Times Index falling 2 percent -- along with the rest of Asia. The losses are being partially reversed this morning as I write, but the size of the falls -- not just in Singapore but around the world over the past few sessions -- shows just how nervous investors really are.