Belying all claims, Singapore’s economy grew by 4.6 per cent in the third quarter from a year ago, boosted by growth in the manufacturing and services industries. This was revealed in the advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) today.
“The Singapore economy expanded by 6.3 per cent in the third quarter from the previous three months, on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis, extending the 2.4 per cent expansion in the second quarter,” MTI said
As far as the manufacturing sector was concerned, it expanded by 15.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the third quarter, faster than the 8.2 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was supported mainly by robust expansions in the electronics, biomedical manufacturing and precision engineering clusters. On a quarter-on quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the sector grew at a faster pace of 23.1 per cent, compared to the 3.2 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.
Meanwhile, services producing industries also grew by 2.6 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter, similar to the 2.5 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was largely supported by the finance & insurance, wholesale & retail trade and transportation & storage sectors.
However, the construction sector continued to decline. It contracted for the third straight quarter on a year-on-year basis, down by 6.3 per cent from a year ago in the third quarter, extending the 6.8 per cent decline in the previous quarter. The sector was weighed down primarily by continued weakness in private sector construction activities. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the sector contracted by 9.2 per cent, a reversal from the 2.4 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.
