SG Morning Highlights | Singapore's 2023 growth forecast at 0.5-2.5%; 2022 forecast narrowed to 'around 3.5%'

Advancers / Decliners is 93 to 24, with 36.13 million securities worth S$53.81 million changing hands.

World economic growth is slowing due to decades-high inflation, the OECD said on Tuesday (Nov 22), calling for "essential" further monetary policy tightening and "more targeted" government support.

Global GDP is set to grow 3.1 per cent this year – nearly half the rate for last year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said.

The slide is due to continue next year, with global growth falling to 2.2 per cent before rebounding "to a relatively modest 2.7 per cent in 2024", the Paris-based organisation said.

Singapore on Wednesday (Nov 23) upgraded its 2022 full-year trade forecasts for the third time this year, even as it projected negative to flat growth for 2023.

Total merchandise trade is now projected to grow 19.5-20 per cent in 2022, up from an earlier prediction of 15-16 per cent, according to Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG). The agency attributed this to better-than-expected performance, driven by oil and electronics trade.

The growth projection for non-oil domestic exports (NODX) was narrowed to "around 6 per cent", from 5-6 per cent previously.

Singapore's economy is forecast to grow at between 0.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent in 2023, while the official full-year growth forecast for 2022 has been narrowed to "around 3.5 per cent", according to data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Wednesday (Nov 23).

This follows the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) previous forecast for growth to slow to a pace that is "below trend" in 2023.

The updated forecasts come as third quarter growth was revised downwards to 4.1 per cent year-on-year, slower than both the earlier advance estimate of 4.4 per cent, and the 4.5 per cent growth recorded in Q2.

This works out to a unit price of about S$7.43 per share. With the acquisition, BlackRock's stake in Keppel was lifted to 5 per cent from 4.99 per cent, the filing said.

Following the share purchase, BlackRock currently holds a deemed interest of about 87.7 million Keppel shares through some 20 entities related to the asset manager.

Yangzijiang Financial will contribute S$80 million to the Heliconia Generation Fund Limited Partnership, as the anchor limited partner, it said in a Tuesday (Nov 22) bourse filing. Investments may be structured in the form of equity, debt and/or hybrid debt-equity structures, it added.

The fund intends to invest in promising SMEs with a focus on Singapore and Vietnam to catalyse more capital for them, co-investing alongside other funds managed by Heliconia such as the SME Co-Investment funds.

The Reit manager said it is currently "in discussions" with the lead lenders of the existing offshore bank loans and existing onshore bank loans to refinance the remaining amount of the loan facilities that are maturing by Apr 30, 2023.

In June, the Reit announced the extension of the maturity date of the existing offshore bank loans to the earlier of either the earliest maturity date of the existing onshore bank loans, or Apr 30, 2023.