Singapore economy shrinks 6.5% in first half of 2009
- Source: Xinhua
- [09:30 August 11 2009]
- Comments
Singapore economy contracted by 6.5 percent in the first half of 2009, the government said on Tuesday.
According to the country's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI),in the second quarter of 2009, Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by a seasonally adjusted 20.7 percent compared to the previous quarter. This performance represented a significant improvement from the 12.2 percent contraction in the first quarter of the year.
In year-on-year terms, GDP contracted by 3.5 percent in the second quarter.
The MTI said that the improvement in the second quarter was largely driven by the spike in output from the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster and inventory re-stocking. Financial services was boosted by sentiment-sensitive segments such as stock market activities.
"It is uncertain if these can be sustained into the second half," the MTI said, adding that it is maintaining the economic growth forecast for 2009 at minus 6.0 to minus 4.0 percent.
The MTI said that in recent weeks, several forward-looking and sentiment-sensitive indicators have started to turn positive, but there have been few signs of a decisive turnaround in final demand in Singapore's key export markets.
It said that the industrial production and consumption, as well as the labor market in developed economies remain weak.
"Without a turnaround in these demand-led indicators, any economic recovery in the second half of the year will probably be sluggish and modest," it said.
