SINGAPORE, Jan 4: Singapore will slash its leaders’ unpopular multi-million-dollar salaries by at least a third, new guidelines showed on Wednesday, but they will remain the world’s best-paid politicians.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who promised the salary review to ease public anger that surfaced in landmark 2011 elections, will take a 36 per cent reduction in basic pay to Sg$2.2 million ($1.69 million).

That is still the highest salary of any elected head of government in the world — more than four times as much as Barack Obama who earns $400,000 a year as president of the United States.

It is also more than 45 times the $36,200 annual salary, including allowances, that Manmohan Singh is paid as prime minister of India, a nation of 1.2 billion people.

Under the new scale the city-state’s largely ceremonial president will see his pay reduced by 51 per cent to Sg$1.54 million, while entry-level cabinet members will receive half the premier’s salary.

That still puts them well ahead of government leaders in the world’s major economies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who heads Europe’s biggest economy, earns a gross salary of about 189,216 euros ($246,750) a year, less than France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy who earns just over 230,000 euros.

Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang earns roughly $543,500 annually and the Japanese prime minister gets about $513,000 a year.

Singapore has the world’s highest concentration of millionaire households, with 15.5 per cent boasting at least $1 million in investable assets according to the Boston Consulting Group, but it also has one of the widest income gaps among developedeconomies.—AFP