Singapore

Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Singapore dollar (ISO code: SGD)
* Central bank discount rate: 
* Commercial banks lending rate: 5.38% (31 December 2009 est.)
* Stock of money (M1): $52.57 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $179 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Singapore: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	82 611	92 717	85 655	88 332 	93 206 	109 664	120 942	139 177	166 950	181 948
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Singapore: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	91.771	86.881	98.475	111.397	113.763	106.758	100.349	88.462 	83.752 	102.598
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Singapore: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	28.803	26.612	25.525	22.192 	20.351 	19.701 	19.205 	19.113 	20.864 	21.725
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Singapore: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.	15.430	16.286	19.047	16.915 	16.696 	15.096 	13.308 	13.943 	13.167 	15.436
Debt to revenue (years) 	3.186 	3.265 	3.858 	5.020 	5.590 	5.419 	5.225 	4.628 	4.014 	4.723
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Singapore on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Singapore
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries