Singapore shows dangerous debt level says GMT
New research shows that Singapore companies’s level of indebtedness has reached new highs.
Singapore companies have a level of indebtedness that has reached new highs as the country's economic growth slows, according to GMT Research.
Debt rose to six times the amount of operating cash flow in 2013 for non-financial Singaporean companies, from 5.1 times in 2012, the Hong Kong-based research firm revealed.
Leverage among corporates has now reached a "danger threshold", GMT founder Gillem Tulloch told Bloomberg on Tuesday (June 3rd).
"It’s a bit surprising that Singaporean companies seem to have leveraged up significantly over the past few years. There’s been a slight loss of discipline, or it could be that the growth has not come in as expected," he said.
It’s likely that Singapore's growth is headed for a slowdown in 2014, since it can't be sustained without more stimulus or reckless bank lending, GMT Research said.
Most Asian markets but Tokyo succumbed to a round of profit-taking on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average added 0.2 per cent to close at 15067.96, but Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore bourses were 0.6 per cent to 0.8 per cent lower.
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