For those who are buy and hold...sweet dreams! 
jwm
GIC Says Global Recession May Be Worst in 30 Years (Update1)
By Yoolim Lee and Liza Lin
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Government of Singapore Investment Corp., a sovereign wealth fund that manages more than $100 billion, said the world economy may be facing its worst recession in three decades as the U.S. credit crisis spreads.
``We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession that we have encountered in the last 30 years,'' Tony Tan, deputy chairman of GIC, as the company is known, said in a speech to more than 500 employees in Singapore today.
The International Monetary Fund earlier this month cut its forecast for global economic growth this year and said there's a 25 percent chance of a world recession, citing the worst financial crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
The world economy will expand 3.7 percent in 2008, the slowest pace since 2002, according to the IMF. In January the fund projected growth of 4.1 percent. The reduction is the third by the Washington-based lender since last July, when it predicted the world economy would cope with the U.S. credit squeeze and grow 5.2 percent this year.
GIC, set up in 1981 as the government's fund manager for Singapore's foreign reserves, has earned an annual average 9.5 percent since its inception, it said two years ago at its 25th anniversary.
``The next years may well be among the most challenging years for GIC since our establishment,'' Tan said.
GIC has invested about $18 billion in Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG as banks raise capital after writing down investments linked to the U.S. subprime market. GIC is studying an additional investment in UBS through a rights offer after the bank wrote down a further $19 billion. Tan said today the investment in the two banks is ``long term.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 20, 2008 23:39 EDT
jwm
GIC Says Global Recession May Be Worst in 30 Years (Update1)
By Yoolim Lee and Liza Lin
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Government of Singapore Investment Corp., a sovereign wealth fund that manages more than $100 billion, said the world economy may be facing its worst recession in three decades as the U.S. credit crisis spreads.
``We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession that we have encountered in the last 30 years,'' Tony Tan, deputy chairman of GIC, as the company is known, said in a speech to more than 500 employees in Singapore today.
The International Monetary Fund earlier this month cut its forecast for global economic growth this year and said there's a 25 percent chance of a world recession, citing the worst financial crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
The world economy will expand 3.7 percent in 2008, the slowest pace since 2002, according to the IMF. In January the fund projected growth of 4.1 percent. The reduction is the third by the Washington-based lender since last July, when it predicted the world economy would cope with the U.S. credit squeeze and grow 5.2 percent this year.
GIC, set up in 1981 as the government's fund manager for Singapore's foreign reserves, has earned an annual average 9.5 percent since its inception, it said two years ago at its 25th anniversary.
``The next years may well be among the most challenging years for GIC since our establishment,'' Tan said.
GIC has invested about $18 billion in Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG as banks raise capital after writing down investments linked to the U.S. subprime market. GIC is studying an additional investment in UBS through a rights offer after the bank wrote down a further $19 billion. Tan said today the investment in the two banks is ``long term.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 20, 2008 23:39 EDT
