Singapore Loves Dividends, Australia Most Generous

Australia’s 4.2% yield highest among developed markets
97% of Singapore stocks paid dividends versus 70% in S&P 500

Stocks prices are displayed on an electronic stock board at the Asia Plus Securities Pcl headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2014. Thailand’s baht rose the most in three weeks and stocks gained after voters defied protesters’ efforts to disrupt polls and cast ballots across 90 percent of the country yesterday without triggering major violence.
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Lee J Miller, Brandon Kochkodin, and Wei Lu

January 9, 2018 at 5:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Dividend-dependent investors were best served by the Asia-Pacific region last year, with Australia’s benchmark index offering the highest yield among developed countries and Singapore providing nearly ubiquitous payouts.

Singapore and the Philippines led the world in the proportion of companies that made or pledged dividend payments, with about 97 percent of companies in both Singapore’s Straits Times Index and the Philippine Stock Exchange PSEi Index having an ex-dividend date for the 12 months through Dec. 31, according to an analysis of about 70 national equity benchmarks by Bloomberg.