Singapore’s Q3 GDP grows by 10.6% on-year

Singapore’s GDP expanded by 10.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the third quarter of 2010.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy contracted by 18.7 per cent, a reversal from the growth of 27.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

The advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Thursday said it expected the Singapore economy to grow by around 15 per cent for the whole of 2010, powered by recovering biomedical manufacturing and financial industries.

MTI said it expected the biomedical manufacturing cluster to recover with higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and restocking activities of several companies.

It added the financial services sector should continue recovering, supported by resilience in the core banking and insurance industries.

Moving on to other sectors’ performance in the third quarter, MTI said manufacturing grew by 14.3 per cent on-year. This was moderated from a strong growth of 46.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Growth in the construction sector was at 7.1 per cent , compared to 11.5 per cent in the second quarter.

Singapore’s wholesale and retail trade expanded 14.4 per cent on-year after a growth of 18.9 per cent in the second quarter.

The financial services sector grew by 9.3 per cent on-year, driven largely by financial intermediation. The business sector grew by 5.4 per cent, mainly on the back of real estate leasing activities. The two sectors also saw continued positive growth momentum of 6.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively, in the third quarter.

Tourism-related sectors continued to do well compared to a year ago. The hotels and restaurants sector grew by 8.1 per cent. “Other services” posted strong growth of 18.1 per cent, driven primarily by entertainment activities in the Integrated Resorts.

MTI’s GDP outlook for 2011 appeared optimistic.

It said external macroeconomic conditions were expected to remain supportive of growth.

In Asia, MTI said domestic demand was likely to remain strong, boosted by wage growth, supportive government policies and healthy fundamentals.

This, it said, would drive intra-regional trade in goods and services such as travel and finance.

Growth in 2011 was expected to be at around four to six per cent.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 18 Nov 2010

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