Singapore’s economy is expected to grow 4.5 to 6.5 percent this year, after a 20 percent decline in 2009, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
MTI also said that the Singaporean government had earlier projected that the economy would likely grow 3 to 5 percent this year. However, the latest update on the forecast reflects the increased strength in the near term growth momentum.
It added that the real gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 4 percent on a year-on-year basis in Q4 2009, after it increased by 0.6 percent in Q3 last year.
The country’s GDP contracted by 2.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis in Q4 2009.
The services sector grew 6.6 percent in Q4, compared to the 8.2 percent growth on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis during the third quarter. The tourism- and trade-related sectors like wholesale and retail, hotels and restaurants, transport and storage, posted the biggest gains compared to the previous quarter.
However, the financial sector declined from the previous quarter due to a decline in the stockbroking segments and fund management.
The manufacturing sector was down by 29 percent on a seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis in Q4, a reversal from the 25.6 percent growth recorded in Q3. The decline was largely due to the contraction of results in the transport engineering clusters and biomedical manufacturing sectors. But the growth in the chemicals and electronics sectors strengthened because of the continued recovery of global trade.
The construction industry climbed up in the fourth quarter, increasing by 16.4 percent on a seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis compared to 3.8 percent in Q3.
The inflation forecast for this year has also been revised to 2.0 to 3.0 percent from 2.5 to 3.5 percent. The revision is mainly due to the rebasing of the consumer price index (CPI) of last year, which resulted from the changes of the volume of CPI’s goods and services and to the methodological improvements.
The underlying inflation forecast of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), excluding private road transport and cost of accommodation, remains at 1 to 2 percent.