S'pore expects 2-3% growth

S'pore expects 2-3% growth

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew expects Singapore's economy to grow by 2 to 3 percent in 2000 after hovering near stagnation this year.

In an interview in at Davos, Switzerland, Lee also repeated the government forecast that the economy will range in 1999 between a 1 percent drop and a 1 percent increase. The economy grew by 1.3 percent in 1998.

Looking further into the future, the elder statesman said, "When it stabilizes -- and some countries will stabilize faster than others -- I believe we shall have about 4 to 6 percent growth. Fairly respectable, but nowhere near the 8-9 percent in the 1980s and early 1990s."