Individuals view gentle installations for Christmas at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay on Dec. 18, 2023. (Photograph by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua by way of Getty Photos)
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Singapore’s economic system grew 2.8% year-on-year within the remaining quarter of 2023, in accordance with advance estimates from the nation’s Ministry of Commerce and Business on Tuesday.
This was a pointy enhance from the 1% enlargement recorded within the third quarter, and the quickest fee of development because the third quarter of 2022.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted foundation, the economic system grew 1.7%, a bigger enlargement than the 1.3% within the third quarter.
For the 12 months 2023, the economic system grew by 1.2%, a slower tempo from the three.6% development in 2022. This was in keeping with the MTI’s expectations, which forecast the economic system to develop “round 1%” in November.
In his New Yr’s message on Jan. 1, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated the nation “averted a recession” in 2023. Lee described the 12 months as “difficult,” citing a “troubled” worldwide surroundings, such because the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, in addition to tensions between the U.S. and China.
He added that regardless of this, “households are nonetheless feeling the strain of upper value of dwelling, although inflation is progressively coming down.”
Singapore narrowly averted a technical recession in 2023 after recording a 0.1% quarter-on-quarter development within the second quarter, following a 0.3% contraction within the first quarter. A technical recession is often outlined as two straight quarters of GDP contraction.
Most notably, Singapore’s manufacturing sector, which includes about 20% of its economic system and the nation’s largest sector, expanded by 3.2% year-on-year within the fourth quarter, reversing from the 4.7% contraction within the earlier quarter.
The manufacturing sector had recorded consecutive year-on-year declines within the first three quarters of 2023, earlier than the turnaround within the remaining quarter.
The ministry stated “development within the sector was on account of output expansions throughout all clusters, except the precision engineering cluster.”
In November, MTI forecast that Singapore’s GDP will see an enlargement of about 1% to three% in 2024, including that main international economies just like the U.S. will seemingly sluggish within the first half of the 12 months, earlier than selecting up progressively within the second half of the 12 months.