THE government should make it an even greater priority to improve Singapore's social support system during this uncertain economic period, say observers ahead of the upcoming Budget that will be delivered in Parliament on March 24.

SEEMS it's risk on again for bond investors as another high-yield bond deal this week got upsized.

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) and Tourism Malaysia have inked their first marketing collaboration memorandum to beef up tourist flows into Malaysia under a two-year partnership.

SINGAPORE, as a regional infrastructure hub, is working to make infrastructure assets mainstream for institutional investors.

THE euro tumbled, and stock and bond prices soared following European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi's unexpected quantitative easing (QE) of a further 20 billion euros (S$30.5 billion) boost to 80 billion euros a month.

INDIA last week cleared its final major hurdle to the creation of a tax-efficient real estate investment trust (Reit) market. But Singapore players are not too worried about how that would impact the domestic Reit sector here.

MARINE services firm Ezra Holdings and its subsea subsidiary Emas Offshore on Tuesday night issued identical statements, saying they were in talks on "possible transactions" – which quickly fuelled privatisation rumours swirling in the market lately.

HUNDREDS more people in the oil and gas sectors will lose their jobs as industry contractors operating out of Singapore scale down further or exit the country altogether.

AN advocacy group under the People's Action Party (PAP) has submitted a set of recommendations for the March 24 Budget to the Finance Ministry. The PAP Seniors Group (PAP.SG), chaired by Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, also wants the Health Ministry to consider the list of three recommendations.

AUSTRALIA and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) has closed its business lending to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in five Asian countries, cutting around 100 jobs, in a sign its new chief executive is slimming presence in the region.