Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced on February 20 that the country has maintained its economic growth forecast for 2014 at 2-4 percent.

According to MTI’s press release, the Singapore economy expanded by 4.1 percent last year, higher than the 2012 figure of 1.9 percent. Growth in the manufacturing sector improved from 0.3 percent in 2012 to 1.7 percent in 2013 while that in the construction sector moderated to 5.9 percent from 8.6 percent in 2012.

The services industry grew by 5.3 percent in 2013, an improvement from the 2 percent growth in the previous year.

As far as performance in the fourth quarter of last year, the Singapore economy grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year and 6.1 percent quarter-on-quarter.

MTI’s outlook for 2014 is that the global economic outlook to improve modestly in 2014, supported by a sustained but slow recovery in the US and Eurozone economies. China ’s growth to moderate slightly as the government continues with reforms to rebalance the economy towards consumption-driven growth.

Meanwhile, key ASEAN economies will remain resilient despite recent pressures on their financial markets and currencies, as concrete steps have been taken to strengthen their fiscal positions while improvements in the advanced economies should help to support their exports.-VNA