The Ministry of Finance has updated its website to include more
information on the reserves. (Yahoo! file phot …
As the debate over
Singapore's reserves continues between several Presidential
hopefuls, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has released more
information on the reserves on its website.
In its "Frequently
Asked Questions" page, the MOF has addressed another
seven questions such as whether Singaporean's CPF monies
are safe and whether the Government of Singapore Investment
Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings lost their value as a result
of the financial crisis.
Last
month, MOF
introduced a section in its FAQ page to deal with questions
concerning the reserves.
In its latest
update, MOF said, "All CPF monies are safe. CPF monies are invested
in bonds that are issued and guaranteed by the Singapore
government. The full resources of the government are backing this
guarantee that CPF monies will be paid back."
It added that the
government is in a strong reserves position, where "its assets far
exceed its liabilities". The Net Investment Returns Contribution
(NRIC) of about $7 billion is drawn from returns on assets in
excess of the liabilities and not gross assets, it noted.
The NIRC recorded
in the government Budget only comprises up to 50 per cent of the
returns earned on the reserves, added the ministry.
On Temasek and
GIC, MOF said both have "fully recovered from the global financial
crisis" of 2008-2009.
"Taking the cycle
as a whole - from the start of the crisis and through the recovery
- both GIC and Temasek have done creditably in comparison to their
international peers among major global managers. They have fully
recovered their declines in portfolio values occurred during the
crisis. More importantly, both GIC and Temasek have earned good
returns over longer periods," said MOF.
In response to
questions about Singapore's high level of government debt as
reported in the CIA Public Debt Factbook, MOF said, "Our assets are
much larger than our liabilities. There is not net government debt.
Singapore is in fact a net creditor country, not a debtor
country."
"That is why
international credit rating agencies give the Singapore government
the highest short and long-term credit ratings of AAA."
A ministry
spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia, "MOF updates the
information on our website from time to time to provide more
information or to better explain our policies. The FAQ section on
our reserves has been updated and expanded based on feedback we
have received from the public. We will also be updating the FAQ on
our other policy areas as part of our regular updating of our
website."
