Silver lining amid the gloom
Written By: Tiang Chuan on October 7, 2008
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The equities market is widely considered as a leading indicator of the general health of the economy. From what we have seen of the equity market over the last 9 months and from the kind of news I’ve been receiving and reading, I would think we can safely say that the next 6 to 9 months will be challenging for the economy. Amid the gloom, there are positive sides that some of us can look forward to.
- Housing prices are coming down. The price of private housing has come down officially over the last quarter. Those who have been actively looking at resale flats would have noticed the drop in the Cash-Over-Valuation (COV) request. There may be a drop in the resale flat prices in the next quarter. So, a good news for home buyers.
- Oil prices are coming down. It has gone down below US$90 now from the high of US$148 in June. Merrill Lynch analyst have even said that oil price can go below US$50 next year. Car owners will be happy.
- Along with oil prices is the likely easing of inflation. Food (if there are no more tainted stuff…), travel (less excuse to increase price with a lower oil price) and rental pressures should ease. If oil prices remain low, electricity price, which is affected by the forward prices, would come down.
- Less crowd at high end eateries.
- Getting your investments at lower prices. Think Great Singapore Sale.
You have a choice of how you wanna looking at things. Looking at the brighter side would make make them more palatable. Looking at the darker side would not take the gloom away anyway. May the force be with you. 
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