Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Summary: The pandemic has changed consumers’ habit. The overall retail sales in Singapore have recovered to the pre-pandemic level, but some sectors are still lagging. Instead of dining in the restaurants, some have opted to buy more from the supermarkets. The greater dispersion in retail sales indices imply reallocations of consumption among Singaporean consumers. Whether […]
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Note: The ASEAN-10 average score is standardized as zero; Vietnam’s scores above zero show above-average performance, while scores below zero indicate below-average performance. Summary: In ACI’s ASEAN competitiveness analysis, Vietnam has performed in technological infrastructure competitiveness, leapfrogging from a regional laggard in 2000 to above the ASEAN-10 average in 2018. This improvement is due to […]
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Summary: In 2021, Singapore experienced a strong rebound in outward greenfield investments, mainly through investments in real estate, retail and the setting-up of data centres. The recovery in Singapore’s greenfield FDI outflows overtook most of the other top Asian investors. Highlights: Article By GEORGE, Ammu Graphic By Yixuan GE
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Summary: Rising affluence in regional economies is linked with greater purchasing power – however, the downside is the creation of more waste. Over 24.9 million metric tonnes of E-Waste were generated across Asia in 2019, much of which came from countries with higher GDP per capita. Furthermore, increases in GDP per capita led to a […]
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Summary: ACI’s ASEAN Economic Competitiveness Analysis finds that Singapore’s labour market has traded off Labour Market Flexibility for Productivity Performance. Singapore has fallen from being the most flexible market at the start of the study in 2000 to being below the ASEAN-10 average in 2018. In contrast, the Productivity Performance of Singapore has grown with […]
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Summary: Using data from a study about US mergers and acquisitions (M&A), this week’s chart shows that the probability of M&A announcement increases when the workforces of the merging firms have similar political ideologies. In the United States, the dominant way of classifying political ideology tends to be either liberalism or conservatism, which aligns with […]
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Summary: Intra-regional trade dependency is highly heterogeneous across the ASEAN-10 countries, with Laos being the most dependent with approximately 60% trade intensity with ASEAN-10, in terms of both export and import. Singapore’s export structure became less dependent on the ASEAN countries (from 30% to 25%) from 2018 to 2020. However, the import structure of Singapore […]
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Summary: Southeast Asia is one of the regions most exposed to the dangers of climate change, as well as a major contributor of greenhouse gases. To combat climate change, the region must wean off its use of fossil fuels, and make a transition to the use of renewable energies. Scholars and analysts have also noted […]
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Summary: Working from home (WFH) in a small urban labor market. When do employees get to WFH and what type of employees get to do it? This week’s Chart of the Week sheds light using millions of text data from job postings in Singapore (courtesy of our partner JobTech). A simple string search to identify […]
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Summary: To propel the economic development of the Greater Bay Area, China’s State Development and Reform Commission signed the “Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Greater Bay Area” in 2017. The involvement of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau governments in this agreement marks the beginning of integrated development in […]
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