S’pore a speedboat in a storm

‘Our total trade is 3.5 times our gross domestic product, one of the highest in the world,’ Mr Goh said yesterday at a Chinese New Year lunch in his Marine Parade constituency.
So the fall is faster and steeper when the global economy collapses, which explains why Singapore was the first in the region to slip into recession last year.
It is also the reason for Singapore’s bleak outlook this year, with the economy set to contract between 2 per cent and 5 per cent, while some other regional countries are forecasting growth, he added.

SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong, Straits Times