Economists lift S’pore Q3 growth forecasts

SINGAPORE: Economists have raised their forecasts for Singapore’s economic growth in the third quarter, with manufacturing activity likely to remain solid after a strong first half, a central bank survey showed yesterday.

The quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), however, showed no change in the economists’ median forecasts for full-year growth in 2017 and also for 2018, compared with three months ago.

Singapore’s gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.5% in both this year and also next year, according to the median forecast of 21 economists surveyed by the MAS. The economists’ views on 2017 GDP growth are in line with what the government now expects.

In August, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that full-year 2017 GDP growth should come in at around 2.5%, and revised its official 2017 growth forecast to a range of 2-3% from 1-3% previously.

The MAS survey’s median forecast for year-onyear GDP growth in the third quarter rose to 3.1%, up from the previous median of 2.8%.

The manufacturing sector was expected to grow 8.3% in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, the MAS survey showed.

Singapore’s trade-reliant economy has gained a big boost this year from an improvement in global demand, particularly for electronics products and components such as semiconductors.

In the second quarter, Singapore’s GDP increased 2.9% from a year earlier, with manufacturing expanding 8.1%. Second-quarter GDP grew 2.2% from the previous three months on an annualised and seasonally adjusted basis. – Reuters