Singapore's economy grows 1.1% on-year for Q4 2012

SINGAPORE: Singapore's economy performed better than expected in the fourth quarter despite talks of a technical recession.

The economy grew by 1.8 per cent, an upturn from the contraction of 6.3 per cent in the preceding quarter. It also grew at a modest pace of 1.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2012, an improvement from the flat growth in the previous quarter.

For the whole of 2012, the economy is estimated to have grown by 1.2 per cent. This is slightly lower than MTI's growth forecast of around 1.5 per cent, as weakness in the manufacturing sector continued to weigh down on the economy.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the manufacturing sector contracted by an annualised rate of 10.8 per cent, extending the 9.9 per cent decline in the previous quarter. This largely reflected the continued weakness in the output of the electronics cluster.

On a year-on-year basis, the sector contracted by 1.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, following the 1.6 per cent decline in the preceding quarter.

The construction sector grew by 5.9 per cent on-year, moderating from the 7.7 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.