SG Morning Highlights | DPM Wong to deliver 2023 Budget Statement on Feb 14

Advancers / Decliners is 111 to 48, with 75.22 million securities worth S$67.26 million changing hands.

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong, is set to deliver Singapore's FY2023 Budget Statement in Parliament on Feb 14, 2023.

Earlier in November, DPM Wong announced in Parliament that Budget 2023 will see another S$1.4 billion added to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Assurance Package to help households cope with higher expenditure due to rising inflation.

Hong Kong's exports plummeted in November by the most in nearly seven decades as a slump in China's economy and global demand worsened, making the road to recovery even tougher for the financial hub.

Overseas shipments plunged 24.1 per cent last month from a year earlier, the Census and Statistics Department said on Thursday (Dec 29). That was the worst decline since 1954, and far more severe than the median estimate of a 16.2 per cent decline in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Exports fell 10.4 per cent in October.

Imports declined 20.3 per cent in November from a year earlier – the biggest drop since 2009 and worse than economists' projection of a 13.8 per cent decline. The trade deficit was HK$27.1 billion (S$4.7 billion).

Vietnam's economy grew at the fastest pace in Asia this year, signalling momentum just before risks from a global slowdown began to materialise.

Gross domestic product rose 8.02 per cent in the year to December, according to official data reported on Thursday (Dec 29). That was faster than the government's initial target of 6-6.5 per cent growth and was aided by a quicker-than-expected 5.92 per cent expansion in the final quarter.

Manufacturing, which grew 8.1 per cent during the year, was the main driver of economic growth, according to Nguyen Thi Huong, head of Vietnam’s General Statistics Office. Strong improvement in services also supported growth.

This was attributed to higher discount rates and capitalisation rates for certain properties. The manager said this was reflective of risks posed by a volatile macroeconomic environment, as well as idiosyncratic risks at the property level, such as higher vacancy or weak submarket fundamentals.

The decline in valuation was also due to continued weakening of occupational performance in submarkets where the properties are located, said the manager on Friday (Dec 30).

The assurance was a response to queries from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading (SGX-ST) after the manager on Dec 26 said the Reit’s mandatory payment due Dec 31 represents some 25 per cent of its outstanding onshore and offshore loans.

The debt remained outstanding amid continued delays to divestment plans of two Chinese logistics assets. The sum amounted to some 2.03 billion yuan (S$392.7 million). Part of the divestment proceeds were earmarked for the Reit to repay its loans.