Singapore economic growth expected to slow down: MAS survey

The bad news keep coming in. Just last month Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned that Singapore is “doing well” during his National Day Speech, but now it seems that private sector economists are disagreeing with him on the rosy picture. Nonetheless, analyst average forecast for 2012 GDP is 2.4%, on the higher end of the official estimate of 1.5%-2.5%.

Private sector economists expect Singapore’s economy to grow 2.4 per cent in 2012, a downgrade from the 3.0 per cent median forecast in the previous survey in June.

This is according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) latest quarterly Survey of Professional Forecasters. The survey was sent out on 10 August to economists and analysts who closely monitor the Singapore economy.

Meanwhile, economists surveyed expect Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow by 2.3 per cent in the third quarter this year. This is lower than the 3.3 per cent growth projection reported previously.

Economists also downgraded the outlook across all sectors this year.

The manufacturing sector is now expected to expand 2.7 per cent, down from the previous projection of 3.0 per cent. Financial services is expected to grow by 1.1 per cent, compared to 2.7 per cent in the previous year.

The construction sector is expected to grow at a slower pace of 5.6 per cent, down from 6.2 per cent previously estimated .

The survey also revealed that the median forecast for inflation this year rose to 4.4 per cent, a marginal increase from the 4.2 per cent reported in the June survey.

As for the labour market, respondents expect the unemployment rate to be 2.1 per cent by year-end, a slight drop from the 2.2 per cent projected previously.

The MAS Survey also revealed that the growth projection for 2013 is expected to be 3.9 per cent, while CPI-All Items inflation is forecasted to come in at 3.2 per cent.

Via – CNA

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