Economic Repercussions of Extreme Events for an Island Nation: Case of Singapore

Having achieved an export-led exponential economic growth, Singapore remains vulnerable to both natural disasters and economic crises. However, the economic repercussions and policy responses to extreme events for an island nation like Singapore are not as widely known or studied. This paper illustrates that impacts of a health disaster [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)] and an economic crisis [Global Financial Crisis (GFC)] on the Singapore economy based on selected indicators of the financial market, macroeconomy and property sector. Crises of different nature entail different policy responses of different scales and this is highlighted in the policy responses to both SARS and GFC toward economic recovery. In the case of SARS, there were preventive measures toward diseases but no reactive measures as the SARS virus was a new strain. For GFC, the policy measures were simply reactive as preventive measures failed to regulate the financial markets effectively. Our paper makes the case that the impacts of such extreme events are systemic as they affect all aspects of Singaporean society and that, moreover, the island nation is more vulnerable to these shocks than is currently acknowledged.