THE recent growth in business closures in Singapore reflects both ongoing cost pressures and an earlier spike in new businesses during the pandemic, and is not expected to weigh significantly on the economy, analysts told The Business Times.

Business cessations rose 2.8 per cent year on year to 24,503 in the first half of 2022, while business formations fell by 5.8 per cent to 31,431. But these figures actually represent a return to the pre-pandemic norm, rather than being cause for alarm.

Sanjay Mathur, chief economist for South-east Asia and India at ANZ, called the year-on-year changes “a very brief spurt”, noting: “The absolute numbers for business formation or cessation are not particularly high or low.”