Singapore Statistics

A recent announcements by the by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said that Singapore is now the most expensive Asian city in the world to live, we started looking for Singapore Statistics from 2021 and found the following to be most interesting indeed!

In a recent Bloomberg article titled Expats Looking for a Move to Singapore Face Rising Costs they are quoted as saying “Inflation in Singapore rose to a nine-year high in February, well ahead of rival Dubai’s latest reading of about 1%. At the same time, rents, which typically eat up the largest portion of an expat’s paycheck, jumped to a seven-year high in the Lion City, with analysts anticipating further increases as demand outweighs supply.“

As this is a Food Blog the core of our discussions are reviews on food, drink and restaurants but with Inflation in full effect at a 9 year high we are seeing rising food costs here in Singapore which affects business owners and consumers alike.

With Hawker Centers upping their prices by 10% and the price of Eggs (a big part of the local diet) have risen by about 30 per cent since late 2021. So we wanted to look at some of the non Inflation related reasons why things are increasing in price locally. 

One of the main factors considered by Singaporeans are that the foreigners relocating here are part of the problem, however over 300k expatriates have left Singapore since the pandemic yet food prices are increasing and for those lookng to get in the quotas are being lowered making it harder, something the locals will be happy about ahead of the elections!

With a lack of overseas workers in Singapore the governments initiative to get businesses to hire more locals does not seem to have worked in the F&B sector which was highlighted in the media this week F&B businesses offer higher pay to no or few takers, urge MOM to relook foreign labour policy.

Local and Foreign owned restaurants are having to close as they can’t get any locals to join them and do not have the quota for hiring non-Singaporean staff.

Those that are still open have had to pay higher wages and higher electricity bills plus increased food prices all of which are passed along to the consumer and this is coupled with many restaurants at half capacity due to social distances measures still in place, some light relief with groups of 10 more recently but a little too late for many places who have sadly had no choice but to close. 

One issue Singapore is currently facing is logistic bottlenecks overseas that are outside of Singapore’s control. Freight costs are driving end consumer goods prices higher and with that we will start seeing further increases in interest rates as they mirror the US Federal reserves actions and a tightening of monetary policy here in Singapore.

Business travel to Singapore has picked up but tourism numbers have yet to start picking back up but with nightlife starting to reopen that might resume with our fellow neighboring counties eager to get back to Singapore for medical treatments or to check on their apartments which many have not seen for the last 2.5 years.