Money Matters with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

Employment continued to rise in the third quarter but Singapore’s job market recovery showed signs of a “slowing momentum”, the Ministry of Manpower said on Friday, as retrenchments swung up and the unemployment rate climbed. In advance estimates for the quarter, MOM said total employment – excluding migrant domestic workers – rose 75,600 from the previous quarter. But there was a “slight uptick” in unemployment rates and an increase in retrenchments, though both indicators were still on a par with or below pre-Covid-19 levels. In The Straits Times’ The Big Story, Multimedia Cheow Sue-Ann speaks with NTUC assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay to discuss these developments. 

Recognising the value of Deep Tech, Singapore has invested strongly in its development. In 2021, Singapore’s Temasek International announced that it would invest S$1 billion in deep tech every year. But central to all these is semiconductors. In The Spotlight, Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish speaks with Eugene Fitzgerald, CEO and Director, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s Research Enterprise in Singapore, to find out more about the deep tech ecosystem here and how the global chip shortage has impacted Singapore.  Produced by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is approaching US$200 billion in gross merchandise value in 2022, three years earlier than initially forecast in 2016, say Google, Temasek and Bain & Company at the release of their annual e-Conomy Southeast Asia report on Oct 27. Fueling this surge are some 100 million additional internet users that have come online in the past three years, with the digital population reaching 460 million this year.  On Tech Talk, Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish speaks and Fock Wai Hoong, Deputy Head, Technology & Consumer and Southeast Asia, Temasek discuss the findings from the report. 

Singapore is headed for a troubling year in which economic growth will slow while inflation will remain elevated, in part because wage increases are expected to continue. The Monetary Authority of Singapore says global prices may come off their recent peaks but inflation here will remain higher in 2023 than the historical average. In The Straits Times’ The Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent Cheow Sue-Ann speaks with Terence Ho is Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore on the worst case scenario and how Singapore can be best prepared should conditions worsen.

Yesterday we talked about ongoing volatilities within mainland China and in Hong Kong. Today we’re going to continue that conversation, after China’s broad fiscal deficit hit an all-time high in the first nine months of this year.  Down under, inflation in Australia rose to 7.3% on-year in the third quarter - so what will it take for the Reserve Bank of Australia to keep prices in check?  And with the US Federal Reserve announcing its rate decision, can we expect any pleasant surprises towards the end of the year with speculation of slower interest rate hikes? On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Mohammed Zaidi, Investment Director and Head of Research at Nikko Asset Management Group to address these questions.

With disruptions in global food supply chains due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it once again shows how imperative it is for Singapore to protect its food resources. In The Spotlight, Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish finds out more about how a company, founded by two tech professionals, is revolutionising Singapore’s agriculture industry with Chen Meiyue, Channel Manager, Archisen. Produced by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg) Highlights from the conversation: 01:32: How Archisen is transforming conventional agriculture in the fast growing food technology sector 05:19: How Archisen's technology has helped Singapore produce less with more over the years 09:04: How achievable is Singapore's "30 by 30" goal? 10:54: Scalability of the technology to help the region transform the agriculture industry and make food for sustainable 

Covid-19 has caused a global reset, pushing many white-collar jobs to pivot to remote or hybrid work, but the situation looked very different for shift workers, given the industries they worked in were perhaps hit hardest by the pandemic. On Prime Time, host Bharati Jagdish speaks with Mat Ward, CEO, Workmate to find out how they are making a difference in the region's shift-based workforce and transforming the way businesses work with their shift-based workforce. Workmate is a Singapore-based on-demand staffing platform, and it has been recently acquired by Persol Asia Pacific, one of the region’s largest HR service providers.

US tech earnings will likely continue to drive market action with major players such as Apple and Amazon reporting later in the week. Over in Europe, former British finance minister Rishi Sunak will succeed Liz Truss as the next UK Prime Minister after his rivals quit the race. But can investors there heave a sigh of relief just yet? Closer to home, Hong Kong’s shares took a beating earlier in the week while China’s third quarter growth beat expectations, but what implications would these have on the world’s second largest economy?  On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the key happenings of the week with  Dr. Sailesh Kumar Jha, Group Chief Economist and Head of Market Research at RHB Bank Berhad.

Singapore’s inflation numbers are at the heart of our discussion today. If you recall, core inflation rose to 5.3% year on year in September, higher than the near 14-year high of 5.1% on-year in August.  Headline inflation, on the other hand, remained at  7.5% on-year, unchanged from that in August. But beyond the actual figures, what’s also important is how the people in the city state view inflation going forward. On that note, the Singapore Management University and DBS Group Research teamed up to survey around 500 individuals representing a cross section of Singaporean households.  On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian deep dived into the survey findings with Dr. Aurobindo Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Finance Education SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business. He’s also the Principal Investigator for the Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations or SInDEx survey. 

A world-renowned hospitality business university in Switzerland has architecturally transformed their 86,000 square-feet campus to reduce the risk of climate change. With campuses in Singapore and Switzerland, how exactly did this university achieve such large-scale sustainability success in multiple continents? In The Spotlight, Prime Time's Bharati Jagdish speaks with Dr Luciano Lopez, Dean of EHL Campus (Singapore) to find out.  Produced by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)