These numbers are scary… …

In my job, I get to read economic data and announcements on a 1st hand basis, courtesy to Bloomberg and Reuters.

And as the days go by, I see more and more horrible data and reports...
(From Business Times)

“Singapore‘s non-oil exports plunged 34.8 per cent from a year earlier. The January fall in exports from a year earlier was the biggest since records began in 1977, the trade agency said.” (Fresh from the oven, numbers released this afternoon)

“JAPAN'S economy shrank by a worse-than-expected 3.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, or 12.7 per cent at an annual rate, marking the most savage contraction in 35 years, the government said yesterday” (Data released yesterday 16Feb09)

And I don’t even want to talk about data from the USA and Europe…

For myself, during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, I was still a nerd in JC and the “event” was merely a textbook case study for my Finance course in Uni years after.

As for the 2001 dot.com crash, I didn’t feel a thing since I was still an ignorant student in Uni as well.


2003 SARS outbreak, I was blissfully doing an extended internship in the US, so by the time when I was back in Singapore in Dec 2004, Singapore’s economy was up and running again.

This time… this time is different. I am facing this recession point blank and I am feeling every bit of it. To be frank, I do not even know whether I’ll get to keep my job by end of this year.

2009 and 2010 will be a tough ride.