Iggy's Journal: 21 Economists Agree on One Thing, Then Split Right Down the Middle

7 September 2026, PM

Podcast Release

New video's up, and the setup on this one genuinely surprised me. Every single economist in MAS's latest survey, all 21 of them, named AI as Singapore's best growth story for 2026. Same survey, nearly two thirds of them also flagged an AI bubble bursting as one of the top risks to that same growth story. Same group of people, same year, holding both views at once.

The piece walks through what that tension actually means once you get past the headline. Growth forecasts got revised up sharply this quarter, inflation came in lower than expected, and close to half the panel now thinks MAS tightens its currency policy slope in October. For anyone holding CPF or SRS money in bank or REIT stocks specifically, none of that changes your yield hurdle directly, but it shifts the backdrop those stocks are operating in, stronger loan growth helps bank earnings without fixing anything on the yield side, and REITs are watching funding costs move a little against them even as the bigger story is elsewhere. No zone call in this one, it's macro context, not a stock verdict, the real test is whether actual earnings catch up to what the survey is pricing in.

My Personal Take

The split inside that survey is the part I keep coming back to. Same 21 people calling AI both the best case and a top risk isn't confusion, it's actually the most honest position to hold right now, and I think a lot of retail investors skip straight to the growth story part and forget the second half exists. Worth the watch if you've been feeling either too excited or too nervous about AI-linked names lately, chances are the answer sits somewhere in between, same as it does for the economists themselves.

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/4RKfgU6dnoM

📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/all-21-economists-in-this-survey

Not financial advice.  

Cheers, Iggy 🦖