Daily Briefing: Singapore’s economy gains traction in 2Q; Prime Orchard Road rent down 0.8%

And weak sentiment continues to hurt S’pore property market.

Singapore’s economy grew at a faster pace in the second quarter, a recovery that may be difficult to sustain as risks to global growth climb. Gross domestic product expanded an annualized 0.8 percent from the first quarter, according to an advance estimate by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Thursday. That compares with a median forecast of 0.9 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of nine economists and 0.2 percent expansion in the first three months of the year. Read more here.

Tight labour and high operation costs in Singapore continues to take a hit on the retail market here as some consolidations among big players within the F&B segment were seen in the previous quarter, revealed a Cushman& Wakefield report. Examples of which include that by 1 Market by Chef Wan under the Food Junction Management and Toast Box under the BreadtalkGroup. Find out more here.

Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) President Augustine Tan believes weak market sentiment continues to weigh down on Singapore’s property market, reported The Straits Times. He noted that since the government rolled out a slew of property cooling measures from 2009, demand for private homes has dropped significantly on the back of large supply. Read more here.