Top executive compensation: Is it time for a rethink?

TRADE tensions, political instability, rising inequality and mounting debt levels have cast a dampening effect on growth forecast.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects 70 per cent of the global economy to contract this year and has cut its global growth forecast to 3.3 per cent, the lowest since the financial crisis and the third downward revision in six months.

The local front sees a growth forecast of 2.4 per cent for 2019, a decline from 3.2 per cent in 2018. Investor sentiment paints a similar picture with the Straits Times Index (STI) reporting a 6.5 per cent decline in total returns in 2018 and a gloomy forecast for 2019.

In these challenging times, the focus and scrutiny on both how and how much to pay top executives have become a…