Singapore’s economy grew by an estimated 2.1% in the first quarter of 2015 year-on-year, the same rate of growth achieved in the previous quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualized basis, expansion was at a slower 1.1% compared to 4.9% in the preceding quarter.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in an official release said the manufacturing sector contracted by 3.4% year-on-year, following the 1.3% decline in the previous quarter. The contraction was due to a fall in output in the transport engineering, electronics and precision engineering clusters. On a quarter-on-quarter annualized basis, the sector contracted by 2.3%, extending the decline of 2.5% in the preceding quarter.
Construction expanded by 3.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, an improvement from the 0.7% growth recorded previously. Growth was driven by a pickup in private sector construction activities. On a quarter-on-quarter adjusted annualized basis, growth accelerated to 13.8%, from 2.2% in the previous quarter.
Services-producing industries grew by 3.1% year-on-year in the first quarter, which is the same rate of growth as in the previous quarter. Growth was supported by sectors such as wholesale & retail trade and business services. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, services contracted at an annualized rate of 0.4%, a reversal from the 7.8% expansion in the preceding quarter.
MTI said it will release the preliminary GDP estimates for the first quarter, including performance by sectors, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity, in its Economic Survey of Singapore in May 2015.
The advance GDP estimates for the first quarter of 2015 are computed largely from data in the first two months of the quarter–in this case, January and February. They are intended as an early indication of the GDP growth in the quarter, and are subject to revision when more comprehensive data become available, said MTI.
Photo: Bryn Pinzgauer
