Singapore’s Lee Juan Yew scotches talk of early poll

In an exclusive interview with Reuters on March 4, Singapores most influential minister poured cold water on speculation of an early election, suggesting that the government may be prepared to weather the recession rather than go to the city-state’s voters before it bites too hard. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapores first prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and father of the current prime minister, said the economy could shrink by 8 percent this year and faced the risk of a prolonged L-shaped recession, but nevertheless the government was unlikely to call an election before 2011. The result of an election would not be in much doubt as the ruling party has a huge majority and has never lost more than four seats, but an early poll would have demonstrated that the government fears much worse economic times ahead. Lee, who is chairman of one of one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, also for the first time revealed the performance of the secretive Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He said GIC’s assets had slid 25 percent from their peak and, although the fund pared equity holdings by 10-15 percent before the onset of the crisis, he admitted that it had gone into banks such as Citigroup too early.