Sam Holmes
Dow Jones Newswire
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the island-state’s robust economic growth is unlikely to continue indefinitely and that the government will introduce more measures to curb speculation in the housing market if needed, The Business Times reported Thursday.
“We are happy with the result of course, a remarkable recovery from a year ago…but it’s really a rebound from the downturn last year,” Lee said in the report. The prime minister was speaking to reporters in the U.S., where he is attending a meeting on nuclear security.
“We’re lucky it’s turned out more like a ‘V-shaped’ than an ‘L-shaped’ recovery, (but) I don’t think it’s going to continue like this indefinitely because it’s not possible for us to continue expanding like this.”
He also said the mood in the local property market is “very effervescent” and that the government is watching to see if it needs to take additional action to curb speculation.
“If we need to, we will. We have some instruments (available),” he said.
Gross domestic product soared 32.1% in the quarter ended March 31 from the previous three months in annualized, adjusted terms, leaping from a 2.8% contraction in the fourth quarter of last year.
The government also raised its inflation outlook for this year to 2.5%-3.5% from 2%-3% and lifted its GDP growth forecast to between 7.0% and 9.0%, from 4.5% to 6.5%.