Singapore Democrats
Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, posted a bigger -than-expected 40 percent drop in quarterly profit, hit by losses from bad debts amid the global financial turmoil.
October-December net profit fell to S$295 million ($195.2 million) from S$491 million a year ago. Analysts had forecast net profit of S$324 million, according to the average of six forecasts compiled by Reuters.
DBS, 28 percent-owned by state investor Temasek Holdings, recorded faster loan growth than the industry average in the last two years, but it now faces the risk of rising bad loans amid a deepening recession in its main markets, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Fee income is also under threat because of faltering capital markets.
DBS shares dropped 42 percent in October-December, more than the 23 percent drop in rival United Overseas Bank and a 30 percent fall in Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. The benchmark Straits Times Index lost 25 percent in the quarter.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090213/tbs-dbs-results-7318940.html
Singapore retail sales fall 1.6 pct in December
Associated Press
Singapore retail sales fell 1.6 percent in December from a year earlier as consumer spending suffered amid the city-state’s worst recession in decades.
Compared to November, sales rose 20 percent, reflecting the traditional increase in commerce ahead of the Christmas holiday, the statistics department said in a statement Friday. Sales in November fell 3.4 percent from a year earlier.
Singapore is facing its worst recession since splitting from Malaysia in 1965 as a global slowdown chokes off demand for exports. Gross domestic product shrank a seasonally adjusted, annualized 16.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
The government expects GDP in 2009 to contract as much as 5 percent. Manufacturing fell 13.5 percent in December while non-oil exports plunged 21 percent.
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090213/tbs-as-singapore-economy-3c8dc0d.html