In 2005, the government decided to allow two casinos to operate within integrated resorts that also included leisure facilities, business and convention zones, and high-end retail outlets. This sparked the growth of a thriving entertainment services industry over the next few decades, attracting the burgeoning Asian middle class. This second phase of our economic development essentially saw the transition of Singapore from Third World to First World. By 2010, Singapore was an affluent society and a global city, at the cross-roads of international flows of trade, investment, finance and talent. Real GDP grew an average 6.7% per annum during this period. It was also a period in which the economy was buffeted by one crisis after another: •  the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998;  •  the collapse of the global IT industry in 2001;  •  the spread of the deadly SARS virus in 2003; and  •  the Global Financial Crisis in 2008  But the economy grew in resilience, rebounding sharply and emerging stronger after each economic shock. 2011–2025: Demographic slowdown and economic restructuring The dominant theme in the third phase of Singapore’s economic history was the overcoming of resource constraints through a significant restructuring of the economy. While Singapore had always been short of land and labour, these constraints came to a head in the 2010s. By 2011, annual growth in the total working age population had declined to less than 3%, and continued to fall steadily over the decade.
The Governing Council has today also decided to continue to conduct its main refinancing operations (MROs) and its special-term refinancing operations with a maturity of one maintenance period as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until the end of this year’s twelfth maintenance period on 18 January 2011. The fixed rate in these special-term refinancing operations will be the same as the MRO rate prevailing at the time. Furthermore, it has decided to conduct the 3-month longerterm refinancing operations (LTROs), to be carried out in October, November and December 2010, as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment. The rates in these 3-month operations will be fixed at the average rate of the MROs over the life of the respective LTRO. The Governing Council has also decided to carry out three additional fine-tuning operations on 30 September, 11 November and 23 December when 6-month and 12-month refinancing operations mature. Overall, the current monetary policy stance remains accommodative. Monetary policy will do all that is needed to maintain price stability in the euro area over the medium term. This is the necessary and central contribution that monetary policy makes to fostering sustainable economic growth, job creation and financial stability. All the non-standard measures taken during the period of acute financial market tensions, referred to as “enhanced credit support” and the Securities Markets Programme, are fully consistent with our mandate and, by construction, temporary in nature.