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Singapore economy grows 2.2% in Q4; misses expectations
The Singapore economy grew 2.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter, easing from the 2.3 per cent growth in the previous quarter, and missing economists expectations, according to advance estimates by the Ministry of Trade and Industry released Wednesday (2 January).
For the full-year, the growth was 3.3 per cent, MTI said.
The number is lower than the median of nine economists in a Reuters survey that expected the economy to have expanded 2.3 per cent in the October to December period from the same period a year earlier.
The latest data come after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his New Year message that the economy expanded 3.3 per cent for 2018, close to 2017 and above expectations. The economy is expected to grow 1.5 to 3.5 per cent in 2019, but “there are are major uncertainties in the global economy, with growing trade conflicts, nervous financial markets and signs of slowing growth”, he said.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy grew 1.6 per cent in the fourth quarter. A Reuters poll of six economists forecast the economy grew 3.2 per cent, up from 3.0 per cent gain in the third quarter.
Manufacturing expanded by 5.5 per cent year on year in the fourth quarter, faster than the 3.7 per cent growth in the previous quarter. This growth was mainly driven by output expansions in the biomedical manufacturing and electronics clusters, although the precision engineering cluster shrank.
The construction sector contracted by 2.2 per cent year on year, extending the 2.5 per cent decline in the previous quarter. The contraction was primarily due to weakness in public sector construction activities.
The services producing industries grew by 1.9 per cent year on year compared with the 2.6 per cent growth in the previous quarter.
MTI will release the final figures for the fourth quarter and the whole of 2018, including performance by sectors, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity, in February.
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