SINGAPORE - The cancellation of this year's Singapore Grand Prix will be a double whammy to the local economy that is already hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, analysts told The Straits Times on Friday (June 12).

Citing the decline in inbound tourists from a monthly average to fewer than a thousand in April, and the resulting dip in hotel occupancy rates, CIMB Private Banking economist Song Seng Wun predicted that the third quarter of the country's economy will contract by 5 per cent year on year after also taking into account the absence of the Sept 20 Singapore race.