SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan’s narrow win during Singapore’s presidential election shows many voters are still unhappy with the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), but that they favour moderate rather than radical alternatives.

Tan’s low share of Saturday’s vote, unlikely to affect financial markets, was partly due to closest rival Tan Cheng Bock’s ability to attract PAP supporters, who analysts say would not have endorsed candidates set on shaking up a regimented political system that has been key to Singapore’s economic success.

Tony Tan, who was backed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and many business groups, received 35.2 percent of the 2.15 million votes cast in the first-past-the-post contest, just marginally above medical doctor Tan Cheng Bock’s 34.8 percent.

Investment adviser Tan Jee Say, who had been more vocal in his criticism of the PAP, got 25.04 percent while the fourth candidate, former insurance executive Tan Kin Lian, won 4.91 percent.

The PAP, which was co-founded by Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, has ruled strait-laced Singapore since independence in 1965.

Tony Tan’s share of vote was well below the 60 percent obtained by the PAP in May parliamentary elections, when the opposition made historic gains amid unhappiness over soaring property prices and the rapid immigration into the rich Southeast Asian city-state.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said the presidential election showed many Singaporeans were still unhappy with the PAP, which has boosted the supply of government housing and made it costlier for employers to hire foreigners since the May election.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The top official behind Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the United States said on Friday it was not to blame for August’s stock market rout, and warned that developed nations still needed to “get their act together” to tackle their mountains of debt.

S&P cut the United States’ prized triple-AAA rating one notch to AA+ on August 5, exacerbating a rout in global stock markets that had already been hit by Europe’s growing sovereign debt crisis and fears of a renewed U.S. recession.

“From our perspective, it’s an oversimplification to say this was happening because of S&P’s downgrade,” said David Beers, S&P’s global head of sovereign ratings, referring to criticism that the move caused volatility in the market.

World stocks as measured by MSCI’s All-Country World Index have fallen more than 17 percent from their May high as markets lose faith in the ability of politicians in rich world economies to tackle mounting debt burdens.

S&P’s officials have said the U.S. downgrade was mostly based on their view that politics in Washington have become too unstable and divisive to ensure additional deficit-reduction measures are adopted next year.

In Europe, investors are increasingly worried that euro zone leaders have been unable to contain the debt crisis that has swamped Greece, Portugal and Ireland and now threatens bigger, much harder to save economies such as Spain and Italy.

Japan, meanwhile, with a public debt twice the size of the $3 trillion economy, is looking for its sixth leader in five years after Prime Minister Naoto Kan confirmed on Friday his intention to step down.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s most hotly contested presidential poll since the office became an elected post 18 years ago kicked off on Wednesday, with the winner slated to be President Tan regardless as all four candidates share the same surname.

Tan is the most common family name in the Southeast Asian city-state, where ethnic Chinese make up about 75 percent of the 3.3 million citizens and 1.8 million other residents. The 10-day election is seen as a referendum on the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which has held power since independence in 1965.

The four candidates for the mainly ceremonial post will face an electorate concerned about rapid immigration to fill jobs in the fast-growing economy in the Aug. 27 poll, four months after the PAP returned to power with 60 percent of the vote, but faced an opposition that made historic gains.

Although officially the PAP has no preferred candidate for president, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has expressed support for former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, who is seen as the favourite with swing voters seen as the key.

A recent survey by the Institute of Policy Studies had just 23 percent of respondents calling themselves “conservative” or leaning towards the ruling party against 45 percent who described themselves as “swing” voters.

“It may be misleading to use the May 2011 general election vote share between the PAP and opposition parties as a guide to voter sentiment in this presidential election,” said blogger Alex Au, whose Yawning Bread site is one of the most popular socio-political blogs in Singapore.

“As it turned out during the general election, most swing voters eventually decided to vote for the PAP,” said Au, who predicts a victory for Tony Tan, but with less than 50 percent of the vote. There is no runoff if the victor has less than a majority of the total votes.

SINGAPORE, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Singapore is attracting an unwelcome flood of U.S. dollars that has caused a key interest rate to turn negative, complicating efforts to dampen inflation and prompting speculation the central bank will tweak its policy to slow the rapid rise in the country’s currency.

While Singapore prides itself on having a highly globalised and open economy, the stream of investors seeking refuge from international market turmoil in recent weeks could fuel price pressures on the tiny island, adding to fears of a potential property bubble, even as the economy shows signs of slowing.

That could persuade the city’s central bank to reconsider its policy on allowing further appreciation in the local currency.

Authorities have allowed the Singapore dollar to gain 6.5 percent against the U.S. dollar so far this year, the most among Asian currencies, to curb imported inflation and as investors shy away from the United States and Europe where governments are struggling to resolve debt issues.

As global markets plunged last week, the Singapore dollar swap offer rate (SOR) fell below zero for the first time due to inflows into the Singapore dollar. The rate reflects lending costs as well as the expected forward exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and Singapore currency.

The three-month SOR was fixed at minus 0.06 on Tuesday, widening from Monday’s minus 0.01. It fell below zero on Aug 10.

Singapore’s current policy stance is to allow a gradual appreciation of the local dollar against a basket of currencies to curb price pressures.

SINGAPORE, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Britain and several euro zone countries are likely to have their credit ratings cut in coming months as debt problems worsen, and Western policymakers are bound to embark on more quantitive easing to get their economies moving, American investor Jim Rogers said on Monday.

He also said Standard & Poor’s acted too slowly in stripping the United States of its AAA rating on Friday, and that he remained bullish on commodities as investors turn to real assets amid fears of further quantitative easing by the U.S. and European central banks.

“The idea that the U.S. is downgraded and the UK is not is lunacy. There are many countries, Belgium, Spain, lots of countries in Europe, that should be downgraded just as the U.S. has been downgraded,” Rogers said in an interview with Reuters Insider.

Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, is a well-known investor and public speaker known for his bullish views on commodities and China. He now lives in Singapore.

Rogers said he has long positions on agriculture, gold and other commodities and is short on emerging market equities, government bonds and large U.S. financial institutions.

Despite the recent falls in commodity prices and U.S. Treasury yields, he said his positions remained healthy as the losses were offset by gains on his short positions.

Rogers predicted Western governments will embark on a new round of quantitative easing to help spur their moribund economies, as politicians and other policymakers were not prepared to go through the pains of bankruptcy.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The credit ratings of most Asian nations remain sound despite the debt problems in Europe and the United States, with the notable exception of Japan, a senior official at Standard and Poor’s ratings agency said on Wednesday.

Takahira Ogawa, S&P’s director of Asian sovereign ratings, said the substantial holdings of Asian nations of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds may be affected by a possible U.S. downgrade, but it would not affect their credit standing.

“On the whole, the general perception of investors at this stage is that the Asian economic credit story is positive,” he told Reuters, adding that most Asian sovereign ratings were on an uptrend.

“If you compare to the other mature economies, like the euro zone and the United States, there is still a potential growth story (in Asia).”

On the risks of contagion, Ogawa said a big shock in Europe would hit the flow of investment funds to Asia, and could also affect Asian exports. But he said the exposure of Asian banks to European debt, especially that of peripheral nations, was minimal.

On U.S. debt problems, he said the major risk would have been a default, but this had been averted after a last-ditch deal at the weekend before an Aug 2 deadline.

“The second risk (lingering U.S. fiscal problems) still remains, but this is a more medium term challenge, so there is no immediate implication.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore wealth fund GIC said U.S. government bonds remain a safe investment despite fears of a looming debt default, but noted longer-term concerns about fiscal strains in the U.S. and Europe were prompting it to shift more money into emerging markets.

GIC, the world’s eighth-largest sovereign fund with an estimated $300 billion in assets, said U.S. Treasuries “are still in global terms the most liquid and safe assets”, despite uncertainty over whether Washington can gain control over its spending in the long run.

“The headline news on the U.S. debt ceiling, to us that’s more of a technical thing,” said GIC Group Chief Investment Officer Ng Kok Song, according to notes provided by the Singapore wealth fund on Tuesday after it released its annual report.

“There could be some short-term effects, but fundamentally, (U.S. 10-year yields below 3 percent) lets us feel U.S. Treasury bonds are still in global terms the most liquid and safe asset … It’s a relative thing, but the U.S. is not in a Greek kind of situation,” he added.

With little more than a week before an August 2 deadline to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, Republican and Democratic leaders remain stuck in an acrimonious standoff that might trigger a U.S. debt default, hurting financial markets around the world.

GIC’s Ng said the more pressing issue in the United States was about controlling the deficit.

“I think what matters in the longer term is whether either the current negotiations…are able to come to some agreement, the Republicans and Democrats can come to some agreement on long term plans to cut back the deficit,” he said.

SINGAPORE, July 26 (Reuters) – Singapore wealth fund GIC, one of the largest shareholders in UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), plans to invest more money in emerging markets and less in developed markets due to the long-term challenges facing the United States and Europe.

Over the 12 months to end-March 2011, GIC increased its exposure to emerging market equities to 15 percent of its portfolio from 10 percent, GIC said in a statement.

The Singapore sovereign fund cut its exposure to developed market stocks to 34 percent from 41 percent previously during the same period.

GIC’s exposure to the United States fell to 33 percent at end-March 2011 from 36 percent a year earlier, while its exposure to the eurozone dropped to 12 percent from 16 percent.

“Outside the emerging economies, it’s a case of choosing between three very unpleasant outlooks in Europe, the U.S. and Japan,’ the Business Times quoted GIC Group Chief Investment Officer Ng Kok Song as saying.

GIC, which manages about $300 billion, regularly briefs local media about its performance but shies away from the international press. It held a briefing for Singapore media on Monday.

The Business Times said six markets — China, Brazil, Taiwan, Korea, India and South Africa — accounted for almost three-quarters of GIC’s investments in emerging market public equities.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch praised wealthy Singapore for paying its ministers big salaries to avoid corruption, but a government-appointed committee in the Southeast Asian city-state is reviewing the million-dollar packages because of public anger.

“If you look at the most open and clear society in the world which is Singapore, where every minister gets a million dollars a year and the prime minister a lot more, there’s no temptation,” the 80-year-old tycoon said in a dig at British lawmakers while giving evidence to a parliamentary committee.

The hearing was also the scene of a dramatic attack on Murdoch by a protestor carrying a pie made of shaving cream as the octogenarian defended his son and his media company, News Corporation, over a phone hacking scandal that has rocked the British establishment.

British MPs were recently embroiled in a corruption scandal over false expense claims that resulted in several receiving jail sentences. In contrast, no politician in Singapore, a former British colony, has been charged with corruption in the last 20 years.

Still, the top salaries enjoyed by Singapore ministers may come down, after a May election in which the long-ruling People’s Action Party was returned to power with the lowest percentage of the popular vote since independence in 1965.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the world’s highest paid political leader with an annual salary of over S$3 million ($2.5 million), has set up a committee to review ministerial pay.

Members of parliament, most of whom hold full-time jobs, get an allowance of about S$15,000 ($12,340) a month — or about three times the median household income.

SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters) – The head of the Temasek unit that invested in Asian banks such as China Construction Bank and India’s ICICI is stepping down in the latest of senior management changes involving the Singapore state investor.

Fullerton Financial Holdings CEO Francis Rozario is leaving at the end of July and will replaced be Temasek senior managing director Gan Chee Yen, a spokesman for the Singapore investor told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

The change at Fullerton, whose other holdings include Bank of China and Indonesia’s Bank Danamon , comes just one day after reports that Seatown, an investment firm seeded by Temasek, is losing its two co-CEOs.

Other recent changes at Temasek include the hiring of Png Chin Yee, co-head of UBS’s Asia financial institutions group, as managing director, and the retirement of president Simon Israel.

“I can confirm Francis Rozario is leaving his full-time role as CEO of Fullerton Financial Holdings at the end of the month. He will remain as an adviser to the board of the company,” the Temasek spokesman said.

The spokesman added that Gan will keep his position as senior managing director, special projects with Temasek during his secondment to Fullerton.

Temasek, which manages about $158 billion, is the world’s 10th largest sovereign wealth fund and Singapore’s second biggest after GIC , according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institution.