Middle East conflict tops risk list in September, MAS says

A bursting of the “AI bubble" was the second most-cited downside risk.

Escalating conflict in the Middle East, flagged by 70.6% of respondents in a MAS survey, remain the top-cited risk to Singapore's economic outlook in September.

Nearly half of respondents, 47.1%, named it their single biggest concern, well ahead of any other downside risk.

A bursting of the "Artificial intelligence bubble" was the second most-cited downside risk, rising to 64.7% with 29.4% ranking it their top worry.

Other geopolitical tensions, including trade tensions, were cited by 41.2%, up from 35.0%.

On the upside, a de-escalation of the Middle East conflict was cited by 35.5% of respondents, down sharply from 55% in June, and was not ranked as anyone's top upside risk.

All respondents instead identified a sustained AI-driven upturn in the technology cycle as the top upside support, unanimous in both the June and September surveys.

The risk backdrop comes even as forecasters sharply upgraded their growth outlook. The Singapore economy expanded 5.9% year on year in the second quarter, prompting respondents to raise their full-year 2026 GDP forecast to 5% from 3.5%.

Manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and non-oil domestic exports saw the largest sector upgrades, with exports revised to 17% growth from 6.1%.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia