It costs less to hire an expat manager in Singapore than a year before, new figures show.

Wealth management businesses and businesses in other sectors that hope to recruit expatriates in Singapore will not have to shell out as much as they did in the past, according to market data reported in the local media.

The average cost of employing an expatriate in Singapore in 2017 fell by more than $12,000 (S$16,100) from the level in 2016, taking 'typical' annual compensation and benefits for an expat middle manager in Singapore - whatever the business sector - to $223,095. While wealth management and private banking might be slightly different in certain respects, the data - from ECA International - may suggest that certain personnel in this sector cannot command as much pay as they used to.

ECA International, an information and software provider in managing employees around the world, issued its latest MyExpatriate Market Pay Survey. This publication has contacted ECA for more details; it did not receive a reply at the time of going to press (Singapore firms were closed for a public holiday yesterday).

The drop is one of the sharpest reductions in the cost of employing expatriates seen in Asia. Lee Quane, ECA regional director for Asia, was quoted by the Straits Times as saying: "the overall picture remains that Singapore is one of the most expensive places in the world to recruit expat staff".