Singapore to absorb 15-25K PRs as citizens annually

This should arrest declining citizen population.

"The government  plans to absorb 15-25k of new citizens each year from the annual inflow of about 30k PRs. After including nonresidents, the total population in Singapore could range between 6.5-6.9 million by 2030," OCBC noted, citing new data released by the Singapore government.

The more aggressive citizenship drive, OCBC said, results from forecasts that the number of working-age citizens will decline from 2020 onwards. Singapore's low birth rate will also lead the citizen population to begin declining from 2025 if there are no new immigrants.

OCBC also noted that GDP growth will average around 3-4% out to 2020, with 2-3% from productivity and 1-2% from labour force growth. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dipped to 1.8% by end-2012, the lowest since Q4 2007, as foreign manpower constraints started to bite.