Singapore Expanded 1.8% in 2016

Singapore’s economy expanded by a better-than-expected 1.8 percent in 2016, helped by a last-minute spurt after months of slump, according to official flash data released Tuesday.

The full-year growth in gross domestic product exceeded the government’s forecast of between 1 and 1.5 percent, but is slightly lower than the 2 percent annual growth in 2015.

The data announced by the Ministry of Trade and Industry is based on advance estimates.

The Singapore economy, one of the most trade dependent in the world, had been in a cyclical downturn in the past year due to weakness in its export markets. Growth came in largely flat in the second quarter of 2016 before deteriorating in the third quarter.

The Singapore economy grew by 1.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2016, faster than the 1.2 percent growth in the previous quarter.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, the economy expanded by 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter, a reversal from the 1.9 percent contraction in the preceding quarter on the same basis.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his annual New Year’s message last Saturday that “we are not doing badly, considering the global economic uncertainties.”

via Mainichi

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