GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT

GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT

3.

Mr Siew Kum Hong asked the Minister for Trade and Industry for each of the last 15 years up to and including 2007 (a) what was Singapore's Gross National Product; (b) what was the percentage of wages as a component of Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product; and (c) what were the proportions of wages going to Singapore residents and non-residents respectively.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: ( a) Singapore's Gross National Income (GNI)

As Gross National Product, or GNP, is essentially the net income accruing to a country from both domestic and overseas economic activities, we can also refer to it as Gross National Income or GNI. From 1993 to 2007, GNI grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 6.7%. As a result, GNI in 2007 was S$235 billion, about 2.5 times the level of S$94 billion in 1993 [Figure 1: Nominal Gross National Income, 1993-2007 - please refer to Appendix.].

(b) Percentage of wages as a component of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI)

Wages as a component of GDP

Wages as a component of GDP has been fairly stable, averaging 43% in the period 1993-2007. Wage share of GDP tends to be slightly higher during periods of slower economic growth, for example, during 1998-2003. This is because profits tend to fall faster than wages during periods of economic slump. The wage share of GDP in 2007 was 41% [Figure 2: Compensation of Employees as a share of GDP, 1993-2007 - please refer to Appendix.].

Wages as a component of GNI

We do not publish statistics on wages as a component of GNI [1 ] .

(c) Proportion of wages going to Singapore residents and non-residents

There are no available statistics on the resident and non-resident share of wages. While data is available on the numbers of Singapore resident and non-resident workers, employee compensation is not broken down by Singapore resident and non-resident workers.

[ 1 ] "Wage share of GNI" is not a commonly published statistic. GNI is defined as GDP plus net factor income from abroad (FIFA). FIFA comprises largely investment income, the estimates of which are derived from our Surveys on Overseas Investment and other administrative data sources. In addition, there is also a wage component in FIFA, which should be taken into account if we consider a wage-to-GNI ratio. Such a ratio would be sensitive to changes in investment income to/from abroad.