Singapore's gross domestic product also grew 0.7 % year on year in the April-June period. (Photo: straitstimes.com) Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s economy expanded by 0.3 % in the second quarter of 2023 from the previous three months, narrowly avoiding a technical recession or two consecutive quarters of contraction, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) reported.
The island-state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also grew 0.7 % year on year in the April-June period, according to advance estimates.
MTI said, growth in the second quarter was supported by expansions in both public and private sector construction output with a growth rate of 6.6% year on year and other sectors such as services, trade, wholesale and retail trade, transport and storage, information and communication, finance and insurance and professional services, among others.
However, the ministry’s flash estimates showed the manufacturing sector contracted 7.5% year on year in the second quarter, sharper than the 5.3 % drop in the previous quarter. The weak performance of the sector was due to output declines across all clusters, except for transport engineering.
In the first quarter of 2023, the Singaporean economy grew by 0.4 % year on year, slowing from the 2.1 % expansion in the previous quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, it shrank 0.4 %, a reversal from the 0.1 % growth in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Economists forecast that Singapore's growth in 2023 will reach between 1-1.5%./.
