SINGAPORE: On Tuesday (Oct 6), former Temasek Holdings executive director and CEO Ho Ching shared a post on social media that featured Singapore in the top 10 richest countries for 2026.
Ranked sixth on the list, Singapore has an estimated value of US$107,758 (approximately S$138,000) per capita.
The post Madam Ho, the wife of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, had shared was from The Financial Coconut, which used data from the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook 2026. Liechtenstein ranks first with an estimated value of US$226,809 (approximately S$290,000) nominal GDP per capita.
“Singapore’s position among the world’s highest-GDP-per-capita economies is not simply a story of high salaries. It reflects an economic model built around trade, finance, technology and the ability to generate significant output from a relatively small domestic base,” reads the post from The Financial Coconut, though it acknowledged that due to its heavy reliance on international trade, imported energy and external technology demand, the Singapore model comes with exposure.
It also pointed out that the IMF noted that the city-state “has a relatively lower labour share of income,” which means the greater part of economic resources goes to businesses instead of directly to households.
“This is one reason why exceptionally high GDP per capita should not automatically be interpreted as equivalent household income,” it added.
But back to Mdm Ho. She pointed out that on the top 10 list, aside from the United States, every single country is a small economy, “most of whom are also resource poor.”
Indeed, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (ranked 2nd), Ireland (3rd), Switzerland (4th), Iceland (5th), Singapore, Norway (7th), Denmark (9th), and the Netherlands (10th) are all small-to-medium economies in that they are physically and demographically small, especially in comparison to the superpowers, China and the US.
FB screengrab/ The Financial Coconut
She added, however, “Of these, SG stands out as a centre in lower-income neighbourhood(s) while the rest of the small wealthiest per capita economies have got wealthy neighbourhoods,” and called it food for thought.
All the other countries on the top 10 list are located in Europe, where there are other relatively wealthy economies. Singapore, meanwhile, is in Southeast Asia, and its GDP is substantially higher than its nearest neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia, and even more so than countries further away such as Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia. /TISG
Read also: Ho Ching shares post ranking Singapore as 48th out of top 50 countries with the friendliest people
