SINGAPORE, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A global investment survey conducted by Legg Mason Global Asset Management shows that the investment decisions of 63 percent Singaporeans are still influenced by the 2007/2008 global financial crisis.
Legg Mason, a leading manager with 728 billion U.S. dollars in assets under management, released the Global Investment Survey 2017 for Singapore on Friday.
According to the results, Singapore's figure of 63 percent is the highest in Asia, surpassing 61 percent of China's Hong Kong, 57 percent of China's Taiwan and 53 percent of the Chinese mainland and above the global average of 56 percent.
"The global financial crisis and its impact on the Singapore economy are still relatively fresh in many people's minds," said Lennie Lim, Legg Mason's Singapore-based Regional Head for Asia. "The island nation is highly integrated with the global economy, so the local economy and capital markets were strongly impacted, hitting many households directly in the wallet."
Singaporeans identify unemployment as a key investment concern, due to their anxiety over global economic instability and the 2016 spike in Singapore's resident unemployment rate to the highest level since 2010. The other key concerns include the global economic instability itself and inflation.
Lim said these concerns combined to make Singapore investors less optimistic than many of their global peers in terms of the investment outlook for the coming year. They report net optimism of just 9 percent, significantly lower than the average of 18 percent in Asia excluding Japan and the global average of 20 percent.
The lack of optimism influences the asset allocation among Singapore investors. Their portfolios show an overwhelming preference for defensive assets, which account for about 68 percent of their current self-reported allocations. This includes 38.5 percent held in cash, 16.8 percent in fixed income, 8.7 percent in investment real estate and 3.8 percent in gold and precious metals.
According to Ajay Dayal, investment director at Legg Mason Global Asset Management, 29 percent Singapore investors identify domestic stocks as the assets that offer the best opportunities for return over the next 12 months, while 32 percent prefer international stocks.
