Singapore - Singapore is in a better shape to manage the ongoing economic recession today than during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the city state's Senior Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said.

"The Asian financial crisis was an important catalyst for tightening up the financial systems in our part of the world. ... Not just the financial systems but corporate sector in terms of the level of debt it took on and how it structured its balance sheet," Iswaran said at the close of three-day Global Indian Diaspora Conference on Saturday.

Singapore - Singapore entered its first recession since 2002 after its economy contracted for the second-straight quarter, prompting its government to revise downward its projections of the city-state's 2008 economic growth.

Singapore's gross domestic product shrank at an annualized rate of 6.3 per cent in the July-September quarter, compared with the second quarter, when the prosperous South-East Asian city's economy contracted 5.7 per cent, the Trade and Industry Ministry said.

In real, year-on-year terms, the third-quarter slowdown was measured at 0.5 per cent.

Singapore - Singapore shares jumped 3.4 per cent Thursday after central banks around the globe, including four in Asia, cut interest rates in a coordinated push to curb the impact of the global financial crisis.

Traders said they were not expecting the rebound to last, pointing out that the banking crisis would not immediately go away.

The Straits Times Index rose 69.1 points to close at 2102.71 as the shares of 278 companies declined and 250 gained.

Singapore - The Singapore Exchange said it will soon explain to investors its decisions to allow listed companies certain exemptions under listing regulations, media reports said Thursday.

SGX will publish the exemptions or waivers given to listed companies every quarter, according to a report in The Straits Times today.

Though the companies must adhere to the listing rules, there are times when a waiver request is allowed to facilitate a transaction to the benefit of all shareholders.

Singapore  - Singapore stocks fell by 6.61 per cent Wednesday as fears of a glo

Singapore  - Singapore's central bank has signed an agreement with Dubai's financial regulator to cooperate in supervising banking, insurance and capital markets, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a statement Wednesday.

"It facilitates the exchange of information for supervisory purposes between the two authorities," the MAS said, of the agreement with the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

"Such cooperation helps to strengthen the supervision of cross-border operations of financial institutions under their purview," the statement added.

The MAS signed a similar agreement with Qatar's financial regulator last week.