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LKY ruled from 1959-1990. Singapore's GDP over that time grew at a 14% compound annual growth rate: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-gro

LKY ruled from 1959-1990. Singapore's GDP over that time grew at a 14% compound annual growth rate: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-gross-domestic-product https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-gros....

ekianjo 6y ago
14% year on year when your GDP is close to zero to begin with is not that impressive, though.
- objektif 6y ago
  Why? You can still start from zero and remain there.
  - postingawayonhn 6y ago
    Because there's lots of low hanging fruit in terms of infrastructure, education, technology, etc. You don't really need to innovate, you can just copy other successful countries.
    - tim_sw 6y ago
      if it's so easy we would see more 3rd world countries advancing past their current state. At the time of independence, people were very pessimistic about Singapore's prospects, it just looks inevitable now given their rise.
      - postingawayonhn 6y ago
        Corruption, incompetence, war, geographic disadvantage, etc.
    - objektif 6y ago
      Tell that to like almost all the countries in the world.
      - ekianjo 6y ago
        Many countries in the world are growing at a fast pace right now - there's less poverty that there was ever been.
- tim_sw 6y ago
  Haven't grown up in a 3rd world country - I disagree with you. Most countries in SG's state at that time never made it past these initial stages of growth.
frank2 6y ago
Part of that is from population growth. We can control for population growth by using GDP per capita: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-per-capita https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-per-... --which gives a rate of growth of 10.7%, and some of that will be inflation: the data is denominated in USD, which famously inflated rapidly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Here is my math: solve for rate where e ^ (31 times rate) = 11828 / 428. (I am compounding continuously.) ADDED. according to https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm, the dollar inflated by a factor of 4.39 between 1959 and 1990, giving an inflation-adjusted rate of 5.93%. I wonder what South Korea's economy did during those years.
- MrPowers 6y ago
  The macrotrends website says "Data are in current U.S. dollars", so the number I presented should be the real GDP growth rate. I think correcting for population growth is OK, but don't think your inflation calculation is correct.
  - beefman 6y ago
    "Current dollars" means nominal dollars. Inflation-adjusted data are called "constant dollars". The desired series are here https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD Over the 29 years 1960-1989, Botswana experienced the greatest growth at 11.6%/year, followed by South Korea at 9.6% and Singapore at 8.6%. World growth was 4.1%, and U.S. growth was 3.6%. The worst performer was Guyana at 0.6%. (This among only those countries with available data at the start and end years.) The same comparison for the period 1990-2019 shows top performer Equatorial Guinea at 15.0%/year, followed by China at 9.5%. Singapore weighed in at 5.6%, the World at 2.8%, and the U.S. at 2.5%. Bottom performer was Ukraine at -1.4%, and second-worst was Georgia at 0.2%. Former bottom performer Guyana faired much better at 3.8%. Population does not cause GDP. Adjusting for population will give a better idea of changes in living standards but won't explain the differences in economic growth. Population density may be related to economic growth, and for this reason it may be misleading to compare Singapore, which is essentially a city-state, to nation-states.

ekianjo 6y ago

14% year on year when your GDP is close to zero to begin with is not that impressive, though.

objektif 6y ago
Why? You can still start from zero and remain there.
- postingawayonhn 6y ago
  Because there's lots of low hanging fruit in terms of infrastructure, education, technology, etc. You don't really need to innovate, you can just copy other successful countries.
  - tim_sw 6y ago
    if it's so easy we would see more 3rd world countries advancing past their current state. At the time of independence, people were very pessimistic about Singapore's prospects, it just looks inevitable now given their rise.
    - postingawayonhn 6y ago
      Corruption, incompetence, war, geographic disadvantage, etc.
  - objektif 6y ago
    Tell that to like almost all the countries in the world.
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      Many countries in the world are growing at a fast pace right now - there's less poverty that there was ever been.
tim_sw 6y ago
Haven't grown up in a 3rd world country - I disagree with you. Most countries in SG's state at that time never made it past these initial stages of growth.

frank2 6y ago

Part of that is from population growth. We can control for population growth by using GDP per capita: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-per-capita https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-per-... --which gives a rate of growth of 10.7%, and some of that will be inflation: the data is denominated in USD, which famously inflated rapidly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Here is my math: solve for rate where e ^ (31 times rate) = 11828 / 428. (I am compounding continuously.) ADDED. according to https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm, the dollar inflated by a factor of 4.39 between 1959 and 1990, giving an inflation-adjusted rate of 5.93%. I wonder what South Korea's economy did during those years.

MrPowers 6y ago
The macrotrends website says "Data are in current U.S. dollars", so the number I presented should be the real GDP growth rate. I think correcting for population growth is OK, but don't think your inflation calculation is correct.
- beefman 6y ago
  "Current dollars" means nominal dollars. Inflation-adjusted data are called "constant dollars". The desired series are here https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD Over the 29 years 1960-1989, Botswana experienced the greatest growth at 11.6%/year, followed by South Korea at 9.6% and Singapore at 8.6%. World growth was 4.1%, and U.S. growth was 3.6%. The worst performer was Guyana at 0.6%. (This among only those countries with available data at the start and end years.) The same comparison for the period 1990-2019 shows top performer Equatorial Guinea at 15.0%/year, followed by China at 9.5%. Singapore weighed in at 5.6%, the World at 2.8%, and the U.S. at 2.5%. Bottom performer was Ukraine at -1.4%, and second-worst was Georgia at 0.2%. Former bottom performer Guyana faired much better at 3.8%. Population does not cause GDP. Adjusting for population will give a better idea of changes in living standards but won't explain the differences in economic growth. Population density may be related to economic growth, and for this reason it may be misleading to compare Singapore, which is essentially a city-state, to nation-states.