Demystifying Singapore Government Debt to GDP of 130%

[BigFatWhale]

It is to our surprise that Singapore's Debt-to-GDP ratio is top 10 in the world. It baffles us so we decided to do a deeper look to see if something is amiss.  Is it a worrying sign?

Here is the link to the full article:

https://thebigfatwhale.com/demystifying-...dp-of-130/

[¯|_(ツ)_/¯]

Granted - I was caught by the headline news few months ago as I couldn't believed that Singapore Government took on such a record number of debt especially during last 10 years.

After some searching, the answer is clear and given a opportunity, Singapore would want to take on more debt.

Put it simply, when a foreigner opens a bank account in Singapore, they transfer their foreign currency (eg. USD) to Singapore Bank which is kept in Singapore currency (ie. SGD), for the sack of recording purposes, Singapore Government (thru Singapore Bank) retained the USD and issued SGD to the foreigner.  In this aspect, Singapore Government and Singapore become in debt (in term of USD).

We all know what happened to European (Swiss) bank in the last 10 years and also we also heard so much about foreigners putting their wealth in Singapore (banks).  

Given that majority of Singapore Debt is "accumulated" in such a manner, would you think that the trend would continue....



Gratitude.

https://www.singstat.gov.sg/find-data/se...-dashboard