TUESDAY'S report ("Higher growth 'sacrificed' to moderate inflow
of foreign workers") made two seemingly unrelated points.
First, that economic growth had been "sacrificed" to moderate
the inflow of foreign workers.
Second, that economic growth had been "sacrificed" by government
measures to strengthen the Singapore dollar in order to fight
inflation.
However, inflation is once again rearing its ugly head in the
Singapore economy despite record highs in the exchange rate of the
Singapore dollar against the US dollar.
While it would be convenient to blame the high oil prices for
our problems, perhaps the inflation is a sign that the high inflow
of foreign workers has created excessive demand for housing,
transport and food, and other services.
If this is the case, then two things that form the bedrock of
Singapore economic policy deserve rethinking.
First, economic growth is far from the best single measure of
our overall performance and well-being. Excessive economic growth
which results in our social fabric, public infrastructure, and even
domestic prices being strained, is undesirable.
Second, perhaps managing our exchange rate alone is no longer
sufficient to control inflation.
A holistic approach is necessary to tackle many of the problems
which Singaporeans are deeply concerned about today: high living
costs, uncomfortably high inflows of foreign workers and
inflation.
These issues are not independent, and trying to find piecemeal
solutions for each issue may result in all the problems
worsening.
With that in mind, I urge the Government to not view economic
growth as the ultimate goal, but to be wary of all the attendant
problems of excessively high growth as well.
Tan Jiaqi
