Immigration curbs to be tweaked as growth slowdown intensifies: HSBC

But foreigner inflows will still be restricted.

Singapore’s newly-elected government is expected to keep a tight grip on foreign worker inflows to the city-state. Despite this, HSBC expects that the country’s stringent immigration policy will be marginally tweaked in order to help labour-intensive sectors.

“Although the government is going to steadfastly maintain the overall direction of immigration policy, there may be some small tweaks to alleviate pressure on some industries hit by the cyclical slow-down in growth,” said the report.

Even policymakers have recognized the fact that the government cannot dramatically curtail foreign labour inflows, lest risk slowing the economy even further at a time when cyclical factors are already weighing significantly on GDP.

“To us, this implied that the government could seek a more flexible approach to its immigration policies and try to limit the negative consequences for certain sectors,” said HSBC.

The government has previously frozen the increase in foreign worker levies for the construction and manufacturing sectors.