The Role of the Global Economy in Financing Old Age: The Case of Singapore

Abstract

Singapore is the only high-income, rapidly ageing country to rely almost exclusively on a mandatory savings second tier central provident fund to finance old age pensions. This fund’s broad and significant investment activities has enabled it to become a substitute for the mortgage market. Yet the development of financial and capital markets may be adversely affected because of such concentrations of savings. International diversification of the asset portfolios of pension funds will be important in the future to generate the income growth necessary to fund pension schemes. The author lays out the fundamental reforms which are needed to provide economic security to the elderly in Singapore.