"Growing up in a golden era with years of news screaming about more good times ahead, many Singaporeans seem oblivious to their country’s vulnerability to world turmoil.
The bigger story is of a struggling middle class (some two-thirds of the population) that is too badly affected to be able to buy luxury items. For the majority of workers, jobs have been lost and take-home pay diminished.
Almost all Singaporeans, rich and poor, have lost out in the recession, the worst being the poorer class. During the past two years, almost every Singaporean had to dip into his own savings to sustain himself, like the government did with its reserves in an effort to protect jobs.
The picture is different for the rich, whose number has been growing substantially through immigration. The crisis has decimated fortunes, but the bulk of high-asset owners have enough financial muscle (again like the country itself) to ride out the storm or even prosper from it. It is largely the spending habit of this group that fuelled the recent indulgence."
~Adapted from http://www.littlespeck.com/content/economy/CTrendsEconomy-091031.htm~
