Singapore's full-year growth for 2011 fell short of previous estimates amid persistent European debt worries and an "uncertain" economic climate, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said Saturday. The city-state recorded 4.8 percent growth in 2011 - slightly off previous forecasts of five percent - Lee said in his New Year's message emailed to the media Saturday.
"The external environment is uncertain. Debt problems in Europe are far from solved. Next year looks like being difficult for the global economy. As a small, open country, Singapore will inevitably be affected," he added. The 4.8 percent growth is a huge slowdown from the all-time high of 14.5 percent seen in 2010 when the economy was coming off a 0.8 contraction the previous year.
In his speech, Lee maintained previous forecasts of a 1.0-3.0 percent growth next year. Singapore's total GDP was valued at Sg$303.7 billion ($234.2 billion) in 2010, statistics from the government showed. Despite Singapore's growth falling just short of the target, Lee urged Singaporeans not to be discouraged.
"Overall, we have every reason to be confident and optimistic. We pulled together as one nation to overcome the 2008 Global Financial Crisis," he said. Singapore had been the first Asian nation to go into a recession during the 2008 crisis but was able to quickly recover from it, and posted record growth last year.
But Lee warned in October that Singapore must get used to slower economic growth in the next decade as it faced numerous challenges including tougher global competition and a tightening of its foreign worker inflow. "Our growth is likely to slow down. Our economy is more developed, it can't expand in the same... way it used to - seven, eight percent a year effortlessly year after year," Lee said then.
"We have made five and a half percent growth (a year on average) over the last decade. Over the next 10 years, we've set a target of three to five percent. "But I would say if we can make three-plus percent (growth) consistently over the next 10 years, we've had a good decade."