Singapore posts GDP growth of 2.8 percent in third quarter
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