STI 10,000 is not an unachievable goal

[SINGAPORE] DBS Group Research made headlines last week with its Singapore 2040 report, which presented its views on how the city-state’s economy and stock market might develop and grow over the next 15 years.

Among the key highlights of the report were that Singapore’s real gross domestic product growth will average 2.3 per cent a year, outpacing other advanced economies; and that the Singapore dollar may approach parity with the US dollar by 2040, driven by productivity-led growth, safe-haven inflows, current account surpluses and a potentially weaker greenback.

Most interestingly, the report also projected that the Straits Times Index (STI) could rise to nearly 10,000 by 2040, fuelled by fading US exceptionalism and Singapore’s safe haven appeal as well as attractive stock valuations, low interest rates and efforts by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to revitalise the local market.