Singapore’s GDP growth in the third quarter slowed dramatically to 10.3 percent due to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector, according to advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
MTI said the decline in Singapore’s growth momentum was an expected correction from the growth seen in the first six months of the year. GDP had increased 16.9 percent in Q1 and advanced 19.6 percent in Q2 year-on-year.
The Singapore economy contracted 19.8 percent on a seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis, reversing the 27.8 percent growth in the previous quarter.
According to MTI, the manufacturing sector contracted 57 percent in Q3 quarter-on-quarter, following a 67 percent growth in the previous quarter. This came mainly from a decline in the biomedical manufacturing sector, as “some pharmaceutical companies switched to producing a different value-mix of active pharmaceutical ingredients; there were also some plant maintenance shutdowns during the quarter,” said MTI.
Meanwhile, the construction sector contracted 12 percent due to the completion of key industrial and commercial building projects in the early part of the year. It expanded 29 percent in the previous quarter.
MTI said that growth across the world would come from specific sectors such as tourism and electronics. It added that a resurgent Asian market, as well as the integrated resorts would fuel the country’s tourism-related sectors.
Overall, it said that Singapore’s economy remained on track to achieve a growth forecast of between 13 percent and 15 percent for this year.