In this edition of Views from the Top published in The Business Times, Achieve Group CEO Joshua Yim shared his take on how the Singapore economy will fare in 2015: 

“My personal forecast is that economic growth for 2015 should be about the same as last year, likely to come in around 2.8 per cent. The biggest plus would be the strength of the US recovery, as it is still the world’s largest economy, from which the rest of the world takes its cue.

Domestically, the SG50 theme will see the government pumping in a lot of resources for the various celebratory initiatives including the National Day parade. Such investments will be positive for the economy.

As for the minuses, the uncertainty in the eurozone poses renewed risks while a sustained plunge in oil prices will affect the petrochemical and energy industry as well as the economy at large. My assessment is that the property market will continue to be in negative territory over the next 12 months. The hospitality, lifestyle services and travel industries will probably take a hit due to a confluence of factors such as the continual decline in the number of Chinese tourists and the recent AirAsia disaster prompting people to curb travel plans to South-east Asia.

All other industries should do fairly well this year. Against this backdrop and an ongoing labour crunch, the unemployment rate will still hover around 2 per cent.”

Source : The Business Times, 12 January 2015