Singapore’s economy is slowly recovering as income and spending tick upwards, DBS data shows

Name: Singapore start-up says app can read vital signs via face scan in 45 seconds
Uploaded: 2021-03-02T07:34:10.000Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: Singapore start-up says app can read vital signs via face scan in 45 seconds

Analysing anonymised customer data, the island nation’s largest bank has noted salary improvements among lower-paid workers, and fewer customers showing wage cuts

It also noted that while some of its customers needed the government’s mortgage deferment scheme, there was a savvy group that used it to free up cash for investments

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Singapore’s economy is slowly picking up after it contracted 5.4 per cent last year. Photo: AFP

Kok Xinghuiin Singapore

Published: 3:34pm, 2 Mar 2021Updated: 3:34pm, 2 Mar 2021

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, on Tuesday released findings from anonymised customer accounts that show the city state is slowly making its way out of pandemic-induced recession, with the second half of last year showing improvements in income and a rebound in consumption compared with April and May.

In May last year, about a quarter of the 1.2 million DBS customers who had salaries credited into their accounts showed pay cuts of more than 10 per cent, but by December only one-fifth were showing reductions. DBS senior economist Irvin Seah credited this to the recovery of the labour market and the gradual restoration of temporary wage cuts that firms had imposed in April and May, while Singapore was in partial lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This is DBS’ second study of financial wellness in the island nation during the pandemic, after in August last year it released data showing that the fallout from Covid-19 could widen the income gap, with workers aged 35-44 particularly threatened.

Seah said the labour market had bottomed out in the third quarter of last year, citing how the resident unemployment rate peaked at 4.8 per cent in October and improved to 4.4 per cent in December. The third quarter also saw the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rise for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2018.

Singapore’s economy contracted 5.4 per cent last year, the worst recession since the island nation’s independence in 1965. It is slowly recovering, however, with economic growth slumping 2.4 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year after recording drops of 13 per cent in the second quarter and 5.8 per cent in the third quarter.

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Singapore start-up says app can read vital signs via face scan in 45 seconds

The survey from Singapore’s top lender also showed improvements in salary among lower-wage workers, or those earning under S$3,000 (US$2,263) a month, who were the worst hit by the pandemic since they accounted for almost half of all those who had a drop in income. Within this group, those who had a severe income loss – a decline in salary of more than 50 per cent – came in at 42 per cent in December, compared with 51 per cent in May.