Second quarter growth here slowest since 2009 crisis: Poll
SINGAPORE: Hurt by a global tech slump and trade tensions between the United States and China, Singapore's economy in the second quarter likely grew at the slowest pace since the global financial crisis, a Reuters poll showed yesterday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the April to June quarter is expected to have expanded 1.1 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to the median forecast of 13 economists in the poll, slightly less than the 1.2 per cent growth posted for January to March.
This would be Singapore's slowest on-year GDP growth since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy contracted 1.2 per cent.
"Singapore's economic prospects have clearly deteriorated as of late," UOB economist Barnabas Gan said in a note to clients.
"Declining exports have been the main drag to the city-state's growth momentum... (which) plummeted by double-digit pace for three consecutive months into May 2019," Mr Gan added.
On a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted and annualised basis, GDP is expected to have increased 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, slowing from the 3.8 per cent expansion in January to March.
Singapore's trade ministry is expecting 2019 full-year GDP growth to be a decade-low 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Weak manufacturing output and disappointing export figures have prompted the Monetary Authority of Singapore to consider cutting its growth forecast.
Electronics manufacturing output, the main driver of Singapore's economy in the last two years, declined for the sixth consecutive month in May while exports saw its biggest decline in more than three years.
This sluggish growth outlook has economists raising bets on the central bank easing its exchange rate based monetary policy in its next policy statement due in October. - REUTERS
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