Singapore’s economic growth surges in Q4

According to the data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Singaporean economy expanded 9.1% in the fourth quarter of 2016 on a quarterly basis. The latest figure is well above the 1.9% contraction recorded in Q3 and the economists’ expectations which called for an increase of 3.7% in a Reuters’ survey. On a yearly basis, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.8% in Q4 compared to the 1.2% expansion in the previous three months and exceeded the expectations of a 0.6% increase.

The latest data showed that Singapore’s manufacturing activity rose by 6.5% in Q4 on a yearly basis following a 1.7% increase in the previous quarter, driven by the rise in electronics and biomedical manufacturing although the transport engineering and general manufacturing still continued to shrink.

Services sector activity also rose slightly more by 0.6% in Q4 year-on-year compared to the 0.3% expansion in the previous quarter mainly on the back of the transportation and storage as well as business services sectors. On a quarterly basis, the rise in the services sector was higher with an increase of 9.4%, following a 0.4% decrease in Q3.

Unlike the growth in manufacturing and services sectors, the construction sector posted a further decline of 2.8% in Q4, following a small decrease of 0.2% in Q3. This downward movement in the construction sector was mainly driven by the decrease in private sector construction, the data showed.

Overall GDP for 2016 increased by 1.8% when compared to the 2% in 2015 and beat the initial GDP growth forecast which called for an increase of 1-1.5%.