Singapore prepares for lean times

The Singapore economy contracted 7% in the last three months of the year compared to the same period a year earlier.

The news came as the Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong warned that Singapore faces lean times in the year ahead.

"Our critical priority in the next few years is to remake Singapore. We have to restructure our economy and find new ways of making a living," said Mr Goh is a New Year's message.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has retained its growth forecast for 2002 of between -2% and +2%.

And economists say that the rate of decline in the recession-hit economy is bottoming out.