Poor wallet

oh, notice that no matter how good the government tries to tell the people (electioneering rears its ugly head) that the economy is picking up, more jobs and stuff....the bonus won't be that same as last year. Because the expected 5% growth this year will not be able to match with the 8.4% last year.

"Logically speaking, what can we expect? Looking at 8.4 percent growth last year, and maybe 5 percent growth this year, my answer was we shouldn't be expecting higher than last year if this year's growth is lower than last year."


That's what Mr Lim said.

Looking at past few years, 2003 we ended with a bang that made the government revise their forecast for 2004 upwards from 3-5% to 3.5-5.5%. Come on man, 2003 was SARS year right? So we were witnessing a recovery that perhaps partly from a post-SARS region/world. Job creation was tremendous and hit highs in 2004 as well. Which more than made up for the loss during the SARS period.

So last year's growth was a fluke. Kind of. And should there be a strong showing this last quarter, it doesn't matter shit cause the Ministry of Trade and Industry has already forecasted 3-5% again for 2006. Even with any upward revisions, the bonus would have been paid.

unless you earn less than $2000 in the civil service, this year's bonus is not as juicy as last year's.