The Singapore economy is expected to grow by 3.5 to 4.0 percent in 2013, an increase from the earlier forecast of 2.5 to 3.5 percent.
In a statement, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) revealed that GDP rose 5.8 percent year-on-year in Q3 2013, up from the previous quarter’s 4.4 percent expansion.
Specifically, the manufacturing sector expanded 5.5 percent year-on-year, due to a sharp rebound in the transport engineering cluster as well as robust growth in the electronics cluster.
The construction sector grew 5.3 percent year-on-year while the wholesale and retail sector expanded 7.9 percent year-on-year.
Finance and insurance moderated to 10.5 percent year-on-year, primarily due to slower growth in the sentiment-sensitive cluster while accommodation and food services eased slightly to 3.0 percent year-on-year.
The economy is expected to maintain a similar pace of growth in Q4 2013, with externally-oriented sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale trade and transportation & storage supporting growth, MTI said.
Domestically-oriented sectors such as construction and business services are also expected to remain resilient in the fourth quarter.
Looking at 2014, the local economy is expected to see modest growth of 2.0 to 4.0 percent.
This is partly due to on-going structural reforms in China as well as the fiscal consolidation in some ASEAN economies.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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