Singapore’s manufacturing output rises in Oct

According to data from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), the country’s manufacturing output increased by 1.2% in October on a yearly basis and slightly exceeded the economists’ estimates which called for an 1.1% increase in a Reuters survey.

However, the output decreased by 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, less than the estimates which suggested a contraction by 0.9%, EDB showed.

Data from EDB indicated that biomedical manufacturing increased by 11.3% on a yearly basis. The pharmaceutical segment grew by 12.4% while medical technology segment expanded by 8.2%.

Despite the increase in general output, the output in transport engineering and general manufacturing clusters decreased. Manufacturing activity in transport engineering decreased by 26.9% in October while marine and offshore engineering declined by 46.9%, data showed.

Meanwhile, output in the general manufacturing cluster was down 22.2% in October on a yearly basis, EDB said.