Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Singaporean economy grew by 0.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced on October 14.
The increase was slower than the 1.7 percent median estimate by economists surveyed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last month.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy contracted by 4.1 percent, a reversal from the 0.3 percent growth in the preceding quarter.
Manufacturing sector contracted by 1.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, a reversal from the 1.4 percent expansion in the previous quarter. The sector was primarily weighed down by a decline in the output of the transport engineering, biomedical manufacturing and general manufacturing cluster.
Singaporean Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang conceded that the economy may experience negative growth in the next months. Earlier, the Government lowered its economic growth projection for 2016 to 1-2 percent instead of 1-3 percent.
Economists also predicted that the prospect of Singaporean economy is rather dim between now and the year’s end.-VNA
