There is good news as Singapore’s economy has grown 2.5 per cent in the first quarter, up from a year ago, according to the advance estimates released today by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). Singapore has shown this feat due to an increase in growth in the manufacturing and services industries.
The manufacturing sector has expanded by 6.6 per cent in the first quarter while the services sector expanded by 1.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter.
While releasing the press statement, MTI said, “The manufacturing sector expanded by 6.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, moderating from the 11.5 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was supported primarily by robust output expansions in the electronics and precision engineering clusters, which outweighed output declines in the biomedical manufacturing, transport engineering and general manufacturing clusters. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the sector saw a pullback in growth in the first quarter, contracting by 6.6 per cent following the 39.8 per cent surge in the preceding quarter.”
It added, “The services producing industries expanded by 1.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, improving from the 1 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was mainly supported by the wholesale and retail trade, as well as transportation and storage sectors.”
Meanwhile, the construction sector shrank by 1.1 per cent year-on-year for the first quarter, extending the 2.8 per cent decline in the previous quarter, weighed down by a slowdown in private sector construction activities, the ministry said.
Informing about the performance of service sector, the Ministry said, “The services producing industries expanded by 1.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, an improvement from the 1.0 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was mainly supported by the wholesale & retail trade and transportation & storage sectors, which were in turn bolstered by a continued recovery in exports. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the services producing industries contracted at an annualised rate of 2.2 per cent, reversing the 8.4 per cent expansion in the preceding quarter.