Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the city-state has to prepare for hard times and some years of lower economic growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, local media reported Monday.

Lee said it was unlikely that things would return anytime soon to what they were during the boom years from 2004-07, when Singapore's annual economic growth reached an average of 8 per cent, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

"So let us prepare for a very tough year ahead and let us be psychologically ready to think of several slow years after that," media reports quoted Lee as saying at a meeting with unionists and employers on Sunday.

It would be "not bad" if Singapore could get 2 or 3 per cent growth in the next four or five years, the prime minister said.

But he added that Singaporeans could remain confident because of the city-state's sizeable foreign reserves and the fact that multinational companies see Singapore as a key part of Asia's growth story. (dpa)