PRESS DIGEST - Singapore newspapers - June 26

SINGAPORE, June 26 (Reuters) - The following are stories from Singapore newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

THE STRAITS TIMES

- Singapore's economy is healthy despite slowing global output, the worst inflation in two decades and a strong local currency that has made its goods more expensive abroad, said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang in an interview on a four-day visit to New Delhi and Mumbai.

- Singapore may suffer the most among Asian economies from an ageing population, with the average growth in economic output falling more than 40 per cent over the next 25 years, said a UBS research report, as the city state becomes the world's third-fastest ageing nation.

The report estimated that the demographic change would slice 3 percentage points from long-term economic growth, while possible government support for the elderly could cost the country more than 7 percent of GDP.

- A worker was badly burnt Wednesday during a fire onboard a boat in a Singapore shipyard, the second major accident at the same facility in the last 10 days, becoming the 23rd person either injured or killed in shipyard accidents this month.

- Singapore's millionaires club last year swelled by about 10,000 people, or 15.3 per cent, to 77,000, or 1.7 per cent of the population here, putting Singapore in joint seventh place globally in terms of growth in numbers of such wealthy individuals, said a report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

- Rice importers expect the price of fragrant rice to fall in the next few months to $1,000 (S$1,370) a tonne by year end, 18 per cent lower than its peak in May with farmers in Thailand now expecting a bumper crop.

- Citigroup analysts sees no oversupply of homes in Singapore in the next two years, estimating that only 60 percent of the 30,000 units forecast by the government will be completed, thus moderating a fall in private residential prices.

BUSINESS TIMES

- With the poor market sentiment discouraging many Singapore-domiciled companies from raising funds in the equities market, the number of equity deals in the first half this year has been knocked back to a decade low. Only 14 deals worth $2.45 billion were concluded by Singapore companies in the first six months, down from a total of 32 issues worth almost $5 billion last year, Thomson Reuters data show. - The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) is starting a new commodity exchange in Singapore and has begun hiring people. A source said the new Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will go live in July, offering crude oil, gold and non-ferrous metal contracts such as aluminium, copper and nickel. - Total investment sales of Singapore real estate, a gauge of medium to long-term confidence in the property sector, have dipped to S$3.7 billion ($2.7 billion) so far this quarter up to June 20, 58 per cent lower than the Q1 2008 figure of S$8.9 billion, according to CB Richard Ellis. The Q2 showing is the lowest quarterly number in three years, and brings the total so far in the first-half to around S$12.6 billion.

- Malaysia's YTL Corp (YTLS.KL) will launch later this year 18 luxury waterfront villas at Singapore's Sentosa Cove and prices are expected to start from S$12 million for a villa or at least S$2,000 per square foot of land area.

- The S$548 million sale of the Gillman Heights condominium development to CapitaLand (CATL.SI), Hotel Properties (HPPS.SI) and two private funds is set to proceed after a Singapore court dismissed an appeal by minority owners of the development to stop the en bloc sale.