Singapore’s economy in the first quarter grew 2.6 percent year on year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has announced.

As the figure is higher than the 2.1 percent expansion seen in the previous quarter, the MTI maintained its 2015 GDP growth forecast at between 2 and 4 percent.

Construction, trade, services, communication and transportation were behind the robust economy in the early months of the year, expanding by 1.5-4.6 percent.

The finance and insurance sector recorded a high growth of 7.9 percent.

The accommodation and food sector, however, edged up a mere 0.4 percent since the number of foreign arrivals to the country slumped 6.1 percent.

In its report, the MTI also forecast that the ASEAN key economies are likely to expand thanks to rising domestic demand./.