The Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) has announced its decision to place a cap of 1 per cent a year on the wrap fee charged on unit trusts included in the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS).

The planned cap, which will take effect from July this year, will encourage investors to invest more in products offered under the CPFIS by lowering the costs of investment.

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Singapore’s bank lending jumped 2.3 per cent to settle at S$415.8 billion in November from the previous month.

Business loans jumped 2.9 per cent to S$240.1 billion, while consumer loans climbed 1.4 per cent to settle at S$175.7 billion.

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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that the country would have to take this year’s economic fluctuations in their stride.

Delivering his New Year message, Mr. Lee said “The economy goes up, goes down - we have to take it in our stride.”

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China's economic growth will likely tumble to 7.9 per cent during the whole year of 2012, the Hong Kong-based investment bank Nomura International Ltd predicted.

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The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board has announced that the fund's members turning fifty-five would have to set aside a bigger sum in their Medisave Accounts as the Medisave Required Amount (MRA) would go up from January 1.

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Singapore's economy enjoyed a surprise turnaround in non-oil exports in November, following a steep decline in exports in the previous month.

On a year-on-year basis, non-oil domestic exports jumped by 1.6 per cent in November this year, reversing a decline of 16 per cent in October.

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Hong Kong overtook the US and the UK to become the world's most developed financial market for the first time in history, the World Economic Forum said in its new report.

According to the Financial Development Report 2011, Hong Kong jumped from the fourth potion to the top, while each of the US and the UK slipped one position to settle at second and third respectively.

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Ongoing global uncertainty finally forced economists and analysts to trim down their growth forecasts for Singapore, a survey carried out by Monetary Authority of Singapore revealed.

A group of twenty-one local private sector economists and analysts slashed growth forecasts for the country to between 3 per cent and 3.9 per cent.

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The recently-released figures from the Department of Statistics have revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October was 5.4 percent, making it the fifth straight month to have witnessed inflation in excess of 5 percent.

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According to Alan Chan, the chairman of the Corporate Governance Council, the final set of recommendations pertaining to the Code of Corporate Governance had emerged as a "balanced package", thanks largely to the generally `supportive' feedback from the public on the proposed revisions to the code.

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In what can be seen as yet another disquieting addition to the existing murkiness over the slow down in export-led economy, Japan has unexpectedly reported a trade deficit for October; with the country’s exports having plunged for the first time in three months.

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In a Sunday statement, labour chief Lim Swee Say – who also happens to be a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office – said that more-than-expected workers will be retrenched this year vis-à-vis last year; and that the rate of retrenchment will further be much higher in 2012.

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In a Monday release, the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said that a slow down in exports has led to projections about a notably slower economic growth in 2012 than earlier estimated. While it was predicted that the economic growth in the current year will be around 5 percent, the projections for the next year have been lowered to between 1 percent and 3 percent.

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The Housing & Development Board (HDB) will tweak balloting rules to improve chances for the second-time buyers of new HDB flats, Minister of National Development Khaw Boon Wan announced.

Making the announcement through his blog, Mr. Khaw wrote that the review would take place sometime towards the end of this year.

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The euro hit five-week low against the dollar and the yen on Thursday, as investors feared that eurozone's debt crisis would curb economic growth. Downgrading of 12 German public-sector banks also discouraged investors.

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According to the most recent figures released by the Department of Statistics, Singapore witnessed a 0.3 percent month-on-month increase in seasonally-adjusted retail sales in September, excluding motor vehicle sales which plunged 9.8 percent during the month.

Leaving out motor car sales from the figures, retail sales increased 3.1 percent year-on-year.

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According to the Housing and Development Board (HDB), a total of eight bidders have shown interest in the tender pertaining to a 99-year leasehold residential site at Yishun Avenue 1/Miltonia Close.

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In what is a marked strategy towards ensuring that the Singapore cruise-infrastructure industry attains a lead role in the growth of the country’s tourism sector, Singapore has unveiled its plans of making heavy investments in cruise infrastructure.

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Despite the fact that weakened overseas demand has resulted in a slowdown of the expansion of Japan’s exports, the country’s economy recently reported that its latest-quarter increase in exports was an indication that its economy had emerged from post-quake slump on exports.

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Compared with the previous three months of this year, Hong Kong's economy grew 0.1 per cent during the third quarter to the end of September.

Year-on-year growth was recorded at 4.3 per cent in the third quarter, down from a revised 5.3 per cent growth in April-to-June quarter.

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