Road To Recovery Singapore's Journey Through The Global Crisis [Paperback]

Singapore had been one of the nations severely affected by the 2008-09 global financial and economic crisis. The city state came under pressure through the financial, trade, and confidence channels. To counter these shocks, Singapore policymakers undertook unprecedented monetary and fiscal policy measures. They subsequently charted a revival strategy that would help the country emerge stronger after the crisis. These all-encompassing policies together with the global economic recovery in 2009 helped the city state bounce back faster and stronger than many other regional economies. This book provides an insight into the events that occurred during the crisis and Singapore's successful navigation to economic recovery. Although much has been written about the global financial crisis of 2008-09, not enough has been said about how it affected Singapore and the policy response. In this highly readable book, Sanchita Basu Das fills this gap, explaining how the crisis rippled through the Singapore economy via trade channels, the financial sector, and asset markets. But the greatest strength of this volume is its comprehensive account of the extraordinary measures Singapore put in place to deal pre-emptively with what could have been huge declines in output and employment in the face of the collapse of trade and credit flows. Singapore's multi-pronged approach, and especially the fiscal support and loan guarantees contained in the 2009 budget, must go down as one of the boldest and most creative policy responses to a crisis. It is a valuable lesson to economics students and practitioners alike. This book gives you the full story. -Vikram Khanna, Associate Editor, The Business Times Sanchita Basu Das is to be congratulated for providing a fascinating, accessible, and forward-looking analysis of Singapore's response to the global economic crisis of 2008-09. As a highly trade-dependent economy, Singapore was hit hard by these events. But the government was nimble and quickl3+