Friday, October 12, 2012  A Singaporean Mystery (Partially)
Explained  Three months back, I highlighted some issues raised
by Prof Christopher Balding regarding Singapore’s public
finances. Somewhat unusually, the Singapore government has
deigned to publish a public rebuttal (excerpt):  Is there
something wrong with our Reserves?  From time to time, there are
claims that the Singapore Government is covering up losses in
our reserves, or that Singaporean CPF monies are not safe. Some
recent online postings have even claimed that GIC and/or Temasek
are reporting false returns to cover up losses, or that the
Government siphons monies from its Budget or from Government
borrowings so as to pad up GIC and Temasek’s books.  The
Government does not publish the size of assets managed by GIC,
although the asset size of MAS and Temasek are published. On the
basis of the information that the Government has published, as
well as the full system of checks and balances, these recent
claims are baseless. Indeed, they are fan