April 10, 2008
S'pore economy rebounds on growth in drugs output
SINGAPORE - SINGAPORE'S economy picked up speed in the first quarter of this year, rebounding from a contraction as pharmaceutical factories produced more.
A release from the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Thursday said the gross domestic product rose 7.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, faster than the 5.4 per cent gain in the final quarter of 2007.
The Advance GDP estimates also revealed that the annualised, seasonally adjusted rate of 16.9 per cent in the first quarter beat economists' expectations. It had declined 4.8 per cent in the previous quarter.
The median forecast from economists polled by Reuters was for growth of 11.5 per cent after a recovery in pharmaceutical and electronics manufacturing, after an unexpected 4.8 per cent contraction in the economy in the fourth quarter of 2007.
The manufacturing sector expanded 13.2 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a 0.2 per cent growth in the previous quarter. MTI said a surge in the output of biomedical manufacturing cluster helped boost the sector.
The rest of the manufacturing clusters also enjoyed better performance except ofr transport engineering and precision engineering clusters whose growth moderated.
The construction sector expanded by 14.6 per cent, after a 24.3 per cent gain in the preceeding quarter.
The services producing industries grew steadily at 7.6 per cent. Financial services continued to be the fastest growing among the services sectors.
The advance estimate, based largely on data from January and February, gives an early indication of the economy's performance in the January to March period.
The GDP estimates for the first three months in this year will be released in May in the Economic Survey of Singapore.