By ANNA TEO, ST February 3, 2007
(SINGAPORE) Singapore's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) would have crossed US$30,000(SG$46,000) for the first time in 2006, edging it closer to OECD high income average levels.
Booming: The Singapore economy is widely expected to have grown about 8% in 2006, bringing GDP to almost S$210 billion in nominal terms, or about US$133 billion
While official full-year economic data has not been released, the Singapore economy is widely expected to have grown about 8 per cent in 2006, bringing GDP to almost S$210 billion in nominal terms. At 2006 US-dollar exchange rates - which hovered between 1.65 at the start of the year and 1.53 by the end - this amounts to about US$133 billion, or just over US$30,200 in per capita terms based on a population of 4.4 million.
In 2005, Singapore's per capita GDP - or, very loosely, output per person - was just under US$27,000. So a jump to US$30,200 would spell an increase of close to 12 per cent - well over the GDP growth.
Singapore's per capita GDP first exceeded US$20,000 around 1994 when the economy was booming and the Singapore dollar was near its strongest vis-a-vis the greenback. In 1993, per capita GDP was about US$19,000.
GDP is the sum of output, or value-added, by all residents, including foreigners in the country. Other common measures of national wealth include GNP (gross national product) - or now known as GNI (gross national income) - which essentially comprises GDP plus net income of citizens abroad.
The World Bank, for instance, uses GNI, in both US dollars and purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. Calculating per capita GDP on PPP using hypothetical 'international dollars' rather than based simply on exchange rates is supposed to give a better picture of living standards.
According to World Bank data, the average per capita GNI of high-income OECD economies was US$33,547 in 2004 and US$36,715 in 2005. By this measure, Singapore's was US$27,490 in 2005 - 29th on a list headed by Luxembourg, the richest at US$65,630.
In PPP terms, though, Singapore's per capita GNI in 2005 was 29,780 international dollars, and four spots higher at 25th. In any case, the International Monetary Fund has long classified Singapore - with the other three Asian newly industrialising economies and 25 others traditionally known as industrial countries - as an 'advanced economy', since 1997.
The IMF classification, though, reflects not only the economies' 'relatively high' per capita income levels but the overall 'advanced stage of economic development' they have reached. In the IMF's books, the advanced economies share a number of key industrial country characteristics, including well developed financial markets and diversified economic structures, with large and rapidly growing service sectors on the one hand, and a declining share of employment in manufacturing on the other.
Other sources, such as the US Central Intelligence Agency's The World Factbook, also have Singapore's per capita GDP (in PPP terms) at US$30,900 in 2006 - behind 27 others.
Notable in the top 20 are various tiny isles and states, mostly British-linked, such as Guernsey, Cayman Islands, Jersey, and the British Virgin Islands, plus San Marino.
Most surprising, perhaps, is third-ranked Equatorial Guinea, with a PPP per capita GDP of US$50,200, behind only Bermuda and Luxembourg. The tiny African nation has had a windfall from oil production in recent years, but with little to show for it in people's living standards.
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