Additionally, it sold nearly $175 billion of transport services to overseas customers. For a small, open economy of 6 million people, modest fees and commissions from cargo handling, freight forwarding and logistics add up. The inevitable disruption to US-China commerce from retaliatory taxes and embargoes and a potential dislocation of global shipping from the Trump administration's plan to impose fees on Chinese vessels docking at US ports are bound to have an impact on local jobs and incomes. Singapore authorities aren't ruling out a recession this year.
A global trade war can't possibly be good news for a city-state whose exports and imports add up to more than 300% of its gross domestic product. Yet there are good reasons to believe that real estate in Singapore may offer a sanctuary to investors fleeing extreme anxiety.
On the surface, the island economy's status as the world's largest transshipment hub is a risk to its pricey apartments. Singapore's own exports to the US are subject only to the universal 10% tariff that President Donald Trump announced April 2. But its ports and airport sent out merchandise worth about $675 billion last year, of which three-fifths were re-exports.
