Singapore - The major ASEAN economies are likely to deliver higher-than-expected growth this year, but the outlook for 2009 looks challenging, economists said in a published report on Saturday.

Morgan Stanley raised its 2008 growth forecast for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to 5.6 per cent from an earlier estimate of 5.5 per cent.

The investment bank kept intact its recently upgraded GDP growth projections for Malaysia at 5.7 per cent and Thailand at 5.6 per cent.

It jacked up the forecast for Indonesia by half a point to 6 per cent and cut Singapore's from 5.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent, said the breakdown in The Business Times.

Singapore -

Singapore - Accounting graduates in Singapore set their sights on the Big Four accounting firms, a study of the profession said on Friday.

Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have considerably less trouble attracting new hires than the medium-size or smaller counterparts.

Each year about 1,000 new accounting professionals graduate from universities in the city-state. Sixty-one per said they wanted to work for or join one of the Big Four, according to the findings of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

The medium-sized and smaller outfits have been relegated to look elsewhere or hire those with alternative forms of qualifications.

Singapore  - Representatives of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) made progress toward voluntary guidelines aimed at easing fears of political interference, but details of such touchy issues as transpa

Singapore - Singapore's economy grew at a slower-than- expected pace in the second quarter as manufacturers cut production amid a decline in demand, Trade Ministry data said Thursday. 

Singapore - Singapore is launching a mercantile exchange to facilitate the trading of commodity derivatives in the Asia time zone, a financial market conference was told on Wednesday.

The Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will offer trading in metals, base metals, energy, agricultural goods, currency pairs, carbon credits and commodity indices, said Ministry of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang.

It will be the first in Asia to offer such a diversified range of products on a single platform, analysts said.

SMX is backed by India-based Financial Technologies.

Lim said the involvement of Financial Technologies, which operates seven exchanges, "underscores Singapore's position as a key commodities trading hub."