ernal factors such as the recent oil price slump have grabbed attention of late.
But the biggest risk to Singapore’s economy next year could still be its domestic restructuring efforts, experts said at a recent Straits Times roundtable.
Cheaper oil prices could boost consumer spending and lower operating costs for firms in industries such as transport, but the oil and gas sector will be hit, they noted.
The housing slowdown in Singapore caused by tight loan curbs may also drag down the economy next year unless policymakers relax some of the property market cooling measures, the experts added.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said at the discussion that the biggest risk to the local economy next year was likely to be the manpower crunch sparked by Singapore’s move to rely less on foreign labour.
Companies may have to fire some people over the next several months in order to keep below their foreign manpower quotas and avoid paying high levies for employing foreign staff, he said.
"They could also hire, but with the tight labour market, it will be a struggle. So we still have very tight constraints that will limit Singapore’s growth potential."
Veteran investor Mano Sabnani agreed, saying that the local economy would be "OK but not something to shout about" next year.
Calling the domestic restructuring a "self-imposed constraint on growth", he said that the productivity boosts which the government is aiming for have been "slow to come".
The experts also pointed to the ailing property sector as a source of weakness for the local economy next year. A softening real estate market could also hurt the construction industry and other related sectors, they noted.
Phillip Futures investment analyst Howie Lee said the property downturn may also damage the overall stock market. "When the property sector is down, there aren’t much funds for investors to put into stocks," he said.
Investors should also watch out for major external risks to Singapore’s economy, with the biggest being the eventual interest rate hike by the United States Federal Reserve, he said.
"If you take a look around our region, Indonesia is thinking of cutting interest rates, Thailand is, Malaysia is. Only Singapore will have to raise rates in tandem with the US and that poses a serious risk to growth," he said.