Pedestrians walk along the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. (Source: wsj.com) Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s economy expanded by 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2017, lower than the growth of 2.9 percent in the final quarter of 2016, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MIT) on April 13.
Growth dropped by 1.9 percent in Q1 on quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, after a strong rebound of 12.3 percent of the final quarter of 2016.
In Q1, the manufacturing sector saw a yearly increase of 6.6 percent, down from 11.5 percent growth in the previous quarter. The sector was primarily supported by robust output expansions in the electronics and precision engineering clusters. On quarter – on - quarter basis, the sector shrank by 6.6 percent following a surge by 39.8 percent in the 2016 QIV.
The services sector increased by 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year, mostly driven by retails and wholesales trade as well as transportation and storage. However, on quarter – on – quarter basis, the sector slumped 2.2 percent, a reversal from the 8.4 percent expansion in the preceding quarter.
The construction sector shrank by 1.1 percent after increasing by 2.8 percent in the previous quarter, due to a slowdown in private sector construction activities.
MTI said it will release the growth rate of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in the January-March period, including performance by sectors, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity, in its Economic Survey of Singapore in May.
Meanwhile, Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said it will maintain the current neutral policy stance to adopt zero appreciation against the currencies of Singapore's key trading partners.-VNA
