Effect of Pandemic on Singapore's Nominal Wage Growth and Nominal National Productivity

15 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Trade and Industry how has the pandemic affected Singapore's nominal wage growth and nominal national productivity.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Nominal productivity¹ declined by 0.4%, while nominal income² declined by 0.6% in 2020. This was a reversal from the previous 10 years (i.e. 2009 to 2019), when nominal productivity and income rose by 4.1% and 4.5% per annum, respectively.

As economic activity and the labour market recovered from the pandemic, nominal productivity and nominal income rebounded by 9.5% and 3.2% respectively in 2021. In level terms, nominal productivity and nominal income had recovered to 9.0% and 2.6% above their respective pre-pandemic (i.e. 2019) levels by 2021.