Singapore’s economy grows 4.4 in Q3

At a restaurant in a commercial centre in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Singapore’s economy grew 4.4% in the third quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year, according to estimates released by the government on October 14.

However, businesses and people were warned to be cautious in the context that the world still faces a lot of challenges such as inflation.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) attributed the above-mentioned result to a stronger-than-anticipated recovery in domestic tourism and trade sectors.

The Singaporean government has relaxed all restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic after effectively implementing the vaccination campaign, thereby facilitating economic recovery. However, the central bank also noted that manufacturing output and financial services weakened in the quarter due to reduced foreign trade demand.

A technical recession was averted as the economy grew 1.5% quarter on quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, a turnaround from the 0.2% contraction in the second quarter. 

MAS also announced its intention to further tighten monetary policy to make room for a stronger Singapore dollar to cope with the impact of rising costs. This will be the fifth time MAS has made similar moves to control inflation since October 2021. MAS believed that the tightening of global monetary policy will continue to be an obstacle to economies and this trend will increase in the coming time.

MAS projected core inflation at around 4.0% this year while headline inflation was expected to be 6.0% amid global challenges. The  authority said that although inflation will "cool down" eventually, it will remain high for a while.

Singapore's economy was forecast to grow by 3-4% in 2022, from a previous projection of 3-5%./.