Singapore is in a recession…
Read in the papers last Saturday that Singapore is in a recession.
So what do you do when you read this headline? Save up all your money and don’t spend a dime?
Well, that is one thing you should NOT do! To fight recession as a consumer, we should do what we do best. Stay consuming.. after careful budgeting, yes you should take your well deserved holiday, buy your Ipod you always wanted. Because we should stimulate the economy.
“But recession sounds bad and I want to be prepared for it..”
So what is a recession?
A recession is a decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for two or more consecutive quarters of a year. A recession is also preceded by several quarters of slowing down.
It normally takes place when consumers lose confidence in the growth of the economy and spend less.
A normal economic cycle I would say is 6 – 10 years of growth followed by a 6 months to 2 years of recession.
How to fight recession?
There are many ways for fight it and to make the recession as short as possible!
Tax cuts are the first step that a government fighting recessionary trends or a full-fledged recession proposes to do. In the current case, Singapore is asking his citizens to skill up. We need to fill the jobs that are outstanding.
The problems afflicting U.S. and European banks will hurt Singapore and other emerging Asian economies for at least a year.
As the economy slows, inflation will continue to cool from a 26-year peak of 7.5%. It forecast inflation will stay within the 6-7% target in 2008, and ease to 2.5-3.5% next year.
As it is a global financial crisis, we will take the two years to recover. But remember, to fight recession is to keep spending. (Better spend it now as your dollar will be less worth down the road anyway) 
~ His ramblings