Chart of the Day: Economic growth to stay stuck in the doldrums as services stumbles

Leading indicators show no sign of recovery.

Companies in the services sector are not expecting Singapore's economic growth to make a miraculous recovery in the second half of the year.

This chart from HSBC shows that net expectations in the services sector indicates no sign of picking up in 2H, and looks set to continue the downward slide in which it has been stuck since mid-2015.

Although growth ended 2015 on a strong note, HSBC cautioned that economic fundamentals have steadily deteriorated and the marginal increase in first-quarter growth was mainly on back of volatile pharmaceutical production.

“The first quarter contraction in services GDP was mostly due to negative pullback from volatile sectors, but domestic-oriented services are also showing signs of slowing,” HSBC said.