Dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has just made an announcement to keep CPF interest rate at 2.5% for the Ordinary Account. Only the funds in the Ordinary Account can be withdrawn as a lump sum cash at 65 year old, after meeting the S$166,000 Minimum Sum.
The low interest rate return is the lowest among all pension funds returns in the world, faring worse at less than half of Malaysia’s EPF at 5.7% for 2016. The 2.5% rate return also means cheap funds for the country’s two sovereign wealth fund companies, GIC and Temasek Holdings, which now do not need to meet higher return obligations like other pension funds.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sits as the Chairman of GIC, while his wife Ho Ching is CEO of Temasek Holdings. Lee Hsien Loong controls the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) through the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and the Ministry of Finance reports to him directly.
Earlier in July, GIC reported at least S$43 billion in losses for FY2016/17. Temasek Holdings also failed the 2.5% return threshold in the two-year period.
PM Lee Hsien Loong rigged the Presidential Election in 2017, allowing his endorsed-candidate Halimah Yacob to win uncontested in September. Halimah Yacob will now allow the PM have free access to the CPF retirement funds and national reserves unquestioned like as her predecessors SR Nathan and Tony Tan did.