Economist, Centennial Asia Advisors

Nigel Chiang

Centennial Asia Advisors deliver timely and accurate economic and political analysis to investors, focused on anticipating key turning points that affect the client’s interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Clients include public agencies and central banks, as well as fund managers and investment banks. The company draws strength from its flexibility to tailor products to fit client’s specific interests. It provides detailed macro-economic forecasts, scenario analysis and timely assessments of how specific major economic and political developments may affect a client’s areas of interest. At Centennial Asia Advisors, we tell it like it is. We have no vested interests, no need for a China wall, and no reason to skew our outlook any other way.

Economist

A Prudent, Safe Budget, But Is It What Singapore Needs?

Singapore: Sizable Labour Market Slack Despite Growth Rebound in 2021

Centennial Asia Advisors

At Centennial Asia Advisors, we tell it like it is. We have no vested interests, no need for a China wall, and no reason to skew our outlook any other way. With over 30 years experience covering Asia’s political economy, you can be sure our conclusions and analyses are based on the unadulterated facts. Through years of fine-tuning our research methodologies, we deliver a quality of macroeconomic analysis few other houses can match.

Centennial Asia Advisors is an independent research and advisory firm that works with governments, multilateral institutions, financial firms and leading MNCs.

Economic Policy and Strategic Advisors

Macroeconomics

There is a growing international political backlash against MNCs' "profit-shifting" practices, with more governments now moving to limit their ability to exploit tax expedients offered by havens such as Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Singapore.Crucially, there is now a good chance of a global agreement that will deprive these countries from pursuing such strategies; the US Treasury's new proposal to the OECD for a global minimum corporate tax is far more palatable to US lawmakers as it side-steps the thorny issue of digital taxes that plagued similar talks in the past.Singapore and Hong Kong, in particular, are vulnerable, given their historical reliance on tax incentives to attract FDI, including business headquarters.For Singapore, the significance goes deeper: its reliance on tax incentives likely explains its historically good FDI performance despite the relatively low rate of return on foreign direct investment that the economy offers vis-a-vis the region and other high income advanced economies. Shorn of the use of such expedients, policymakers will need to manage the likely root causes of this underperformance: high business costs that has eroded economic competitiveness, and adverse (labour and total factor) productivity differentials.

There is a growing international political backlash against MNCs' "profit-shifting" practices, with more governments now moving to limit their ability to exploit tax expedients offered by havens such as Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Singapore.Crucially, there is now a good chance of a global agreement that will deprive these countries from pursuing such strategies; the US Treasury's new proposal to the OECD for a global minimum corporate tax is far more palatable to US lawmakers as it side-steps the thorny issue of digital taxes that plagued similar talks in the past.Singapore and Hong Kong, in particular, are vulnerable, given their historical reliance on tax incentives to attract FDI, including business headquarters.For Singapore, the significance goes deeper: its reliance on tax incentives likely explains its historically good FDI performance despite the relatively low rate of return on foreign direct investment that the economy offers vis-a-vis the region and other high income advanced economies. Shorn of the use of such expedients, policymakers will need to manage the likely root causes of this underperformance: high business costs that has eroded economic competitiveness, and adverse (labour and total factor) productivity differentials.

Singapore At Risk from Increasing Scrutiny over Global Tax Games