Singapore economy predicted to grow by 3% in 2013

GDP growth to improve markedly from 2012, says Maybank.

Here's more from Maybank Kim Eng:

Worldwide, things have settled down. As we head into the year of the snake, the risk of a Euro collapse has been averted, the US economy has bottomed, and the China economy has avoided a hard landing. The US fiscal cliff has also been partly averted, which can be only be seen as a positive development even if the impasse on spending cuts and raising of debt ceiling still stands and the resolution kicked down the road by two months. In addition, QE3 and QE3-plus should also prop up markets against backsliding.

Balancing liquidity and fundamentals. While ample global liquidity will prevent the world from sliding into recession, it will probably take some time for the antidote to filter through to the ground level. Maybank KE’s chief economist Suhaimi Ilias forecasts a pickup in Singapore GDP growth in 2013 to 3% from 1.2% in 2012. Due to Singapore’s open economy however, the slope of a recovery will probably be initially uneven, with a stronger pickup likely in 2H 2013.