Experts remain in low spirits for Singapore economy

Forecast growth is at 1.8%.

While Singapore economy surpassed experts' outlook for the last quarter after it expanded 2.1%, economists still remain jittery as it looks forward to a lower growth of 1.8% for the whole year.

In a recent survey by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the 22 economists surveyed gave lower expectations for economy growth in for this year, expecting gross domestic product (GDP) to come in at 1.8%, much lower than their outlook in the last survey at 2%.

For the whole year, consumer price index and core inflation are forecast to edged down slightly to -0.5% and and 1%, respectively.

Based on the data released recently by the Department of Statistics, consumer prices dipped 0.7% YoY in July, falling 0.3% from the previous month.

UOB Analyst Francis Tan said the city-state's core inflation at 1% has held its stance even with a small dip from June's 1.1%.

"Although this is a slight drop from June’s 1.1% y/y, Singapore’s core inflation has been inching higher and higher since hitting a recent low of 0.17% in November 2015," Tan said.

Meanwhile, unemployment outlook for the year-end inched from 2.1% in the previous survey to 2.2%.

Economist are not expecting too much from 2017 growth as well, posting the same outlook at 1.8%

"As reflected by the mean probability distribution, the most likely outcome is for the Singapore economy to grow by 1.0 to 1.9% next year, lower than the 2.0 to 2.9% range reported in the previous survey,” the report noted.