SG Morning Highlights | Tourism receipts total S$13.8b-S$14.3b in 2022; higher forecasts for 2023: STB

Advancers / Decliners is 65 to 31, with 31.09 million securities worth S$69.30 million changing hands.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday (Jan 17) global economic growth was expected bottom out in 2023 despite the continued Ukraine war and rising interest rates.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Georgieva affirmed an IMF forecast for global growth to decelerate to 2.7 per cent this year from around 3.2 per cent last year.

"Since the beginning of the year we do see some good news. We also expect in 2023 growth to bottom out, to start the process in which we go up rather than down," she said.

Singapore tourism receipts reached an estimated S$13.8 billion to S$14.3 billion in 2022, about half of the 2019 pre-pandemic level, based on preliminary figures, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said at their year-in-review on Tuesday (Jan 17). This was on the back of 6.3 million international visitor arrivals – above STB's forecast of four to six million visitors, though only about a third of the 2019 figure.

December alone saw 931,337 international visitor arrivals, the highest since the onset of the pandemic, though it remains below December 2019's 1.7 million visitors, STB data showed. There were 816,340 tourist arrivals in November 2022.

Barring unexpected circumstances, tourism activity is now expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, earlier than the previously expected mid-2020s recovery.

Bitcoin on Tuesday (Jan 17) rose to its highest in more than four months, extending a new year rally fuelled by hopes that a potential end to central bank policy tightening will benefit the volatile asset.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency touched US$21,594, a level not seen since Sept 13. It was last flat at US$21,174.

Bitcoin has gained almost 30 per cent this year, buoyed in part by optimism that inflation has peaked, potentially reducing the need for tighter central bank policy.

While fintech, e-commerce and IT firms continued to be among the fastest growing in Singapore, several companies in the energy and utilities sector have topped the charts in terms of growth, according to a list of the 100 fastest growing firms here.

Released on Tuesday (Jan 17), the 2023 ranking, which was compiled by The Straits Times and global research firm Statista, also showed that more firms in logistics and transportation as well as manufacturing registered high growth.

The Singapore's Fastest Growing Companies list includes 100 local businesses that achieved markedly high revenue growth between 2018 and 2021. The firms must be independent companies headquartered in Singapore with at least S$150,000 of revenue generated in 2018 and S$1.5 million in 2021.

QAF said its H2 performance is "typically" better than H1, although it had been challenging to comment on the trend in the current volatile environment.

For its financial year ended 2022, the company also recorded insurance payouts as exceptional gains.