Xinhua News
According to Channel NewsAsia reports on Sunday night, Singapore’s Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam made the remarks while addressing a local district meeting.
“Although we had a good second quarter – the second quarter of2009 was a quarter with much better GDP growth compared to the previous two quarters where we saw a very deep contraction – the outlook for the future is basically determined by the United States, Europe and the rest of Asia,” he said.
The minister stressed the importance of the community development councils (CDCs), saying that the CDCs could do their part by helping to ease Singaporeans through difficult times.
On July 14, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) revised this year’s economic growth forecast to contract 4 percent to 6 percent from the contraction of 6 percent to 9 percent.
The MTI said that the revised 2009 economic growth forecast reflects the less severe contraction in the first half of the year, while the underlying economic conditions remain weak.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/26/content_11776850.htm