Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced on November 25 that third quarter GDP grew 2.8 percent year-on-year thanks to stronger growth in the manufacturing and services sector.
The manufacturing sector expanded by 1.9 percent during the third quarter with growth supported primarily by the biomedical manufacturing and chemicals clusters.
The construction sector grew by 1.7 percent on a year-on-year basis, a sharp slowdown from the 3.7 percent growth in the previous quarter due to weaker private sector construction activities, the ministry said.
The wholesale and retail trade sector grew by 2 percent, faster than the 1.8 percent growth in the preceding quarter.
Meanwhile, growth in the finance and insurance sector surged to 10.5 percent year-on-year, from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter, and the business services sector expanded at a faster pace of 3.4 percent year-on-year, compared with 2.4 percent in the second quarter.
The ministry said that GDP growth for the first three quarters of 2014 was recorded at 3.3 percent year-on-year. It expects the economy to grow by 3 percent this year - at the mid-point of its earlier official forecast of 2.5-3.5 percent, which had been kept unchanged since August.-VNA
