Singaporean economy forecast to expand 0.7 pct in 2019: MAS

The Singapore economy is expected to grow 0.7 percent this year (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Singapore (VNA) - The Singapore economy is expected to grow 0.7 percent this year, up from 0.6 percent in the previous survey in September, according to the latest quarterly poll of professional forecasters by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released December 11.

The Singapore economy expanded by 0.5 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, beating the estimate of 0.3 percent projected by private economists in the September survey.

Economists polled now say they expect growth in the fourth quarter to come in at 1 percent year on year.

They tip growth to rise to 1.5 percent next year, down slightly from 1.6 percent previously. However, the range of forecasts has tightened to 1.5 to 1.9 percent, from 1 to 1.9 percent. The Government's own forecast is for 0.5 to 2.5 percent growth in 2020.

This comes on the back of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announcing last month that the economy is expected to grow by 0.5 to 1 percent this year, when it raised the lower end in the previous forecast range of 0 to 1 percent growth.

The latest quarterly survey indicated that further escalation of trade tensions, in particular between China and the US, topped the list of downside risks for 87.5 percent of the 22 respondents.

Other downside risks include a “sharper-than-expected” slowdown in China’s economic growth, cited by 43.8 percent of respondents in the December survey as compared to the previous 50 percent./.