This year's haze is set to cost Singapore more than 201S's S$1.83 billion. Who pays for the losses?

This year's haze could cost Singapore between S$3.2 billion (US$2.5 billion) and S$3.9 billion (US$3.1 billion) - up to double the S$1.83 billion (US$1.30 billion) lost in 2015, the costliest episode on record, according to Eco-Business calculations based on a preliminary assessment by economist Euston Quah. Quah, who is the Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics at NTU, has been estimating the haze's cost to Singapore since the 1997 Southeast Asian haze crisis, which he put at between US$163.5 million and US$286.2 million, or 0.18 to 0.32 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the time, most of it in lost tourism. Quah's estimate for 2015, produced with his NTU colleagues Chia Wai-Mun and Tan Tsiat-Siong, covered the two months the haze lasted, and counted the toll on health, tourism, business and productivity, as well as what government agencies and households spent on mitigation and adaptation.

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