News Highlights Tuesday 26 February 2008

The Business Times

S’pore January inflation rate rises to hit 6.6%
The inflation surged to another 25-year high of 6.6 per cent in January – and is not expected to ease for a while yet. This is up from December’s 4.4 per cent, which was also a 25-year high then.

The Business Times

MPs train guns on govt over fast-rising costs Businesses feeling big pinch, they say; some want GST rolled back to 5% (Read also ST's Rising costs, price hikes top concerns of MPs)


The Business Times

CapitaLand targets Vietnam amid demand for homes
CapitaLand is turning to Vietnam as growth slows in its home market of Singapore, after apartments at the company’s first project in Ho Chi Minh City sold out in a day last June. It believes that demand for homes in the country of 85 million is “great” and supply isn’t keeping up. CapitaLand is developing four sites in Vietnam, where it expects to build as many as 2,800 homes.

The Business Times

Asian real estate body sets up Singapore chapter
The Asian Public Real Estate Association (Aprea), which represents and promotes publicly traded Asia-Pacific real estate, has set up a Singapore chapter, following those set up in Hong Kong/Macau and Japan. It believes that Singapore’s listed real estate market is one of the most exciting and fastest-growing in the world. Singapore’s Reit market’s market capitalization of US$21.6 billion is second to Japan, and Aprea believes the country could become a major Reit centre for the region.


The Straits Times, H6

A bit of bohemian buzz for sleepy Wessex Estate
In April, the 10,000 sq ft Wessex Village Square, which includes cult restaurant Colbar, will see four new stores open: an art studio, a pizzeria, a cocktail bar and a dessert cafe. The three F&B outlets will also serve as gallery spaces for homegrown artists to showcase their work, further shaping Wessex Estate as an artists’ enclave. Currently, 40 per cent of the tenants at the 28-ha estate, which consists of 214 black-and-white colonial walk-up apartments and semi-detached houses, are in the creative fields. Wessex falls within JTC Corp’s 200ha one-north innovation and research hub, which includes the Biopolis.



The Straits Times, H24

Foreign funds sell record $15b in Asian equities in 10 weeks
Large foreign investment funds have pulled out a record US$10.7 billion (S$15.06 billion) from Asia’s stock markets in the past 10 weeks, as equity prices and daily trading volumes slumped badly. About US$29.3 million flowered out of Singapore last week, even as the benchmark Straits Times Index rebounded 2.6 per cent. The only exceptions in South-east Asia were Malaysia and Indonesia, which have become top picks among fund managers because of the boom they are enjoying on record-high prices of commodities such as palm oil and crude oil. The good news is that sell-offs by these funds appear to be tapering off, suggesting that the worst may be over.