Industrial production rose by 17.9% in November

This growth sets off the 0.8% YoY decline posted in October.

Singapore’s industrial production recorded a 17.9% YoY growth in November, 2020, due to respective hikes in the biomedical and electronics sectors, setting off the 0.8% YoY decline recorded in October.

This rebound has brought optimism to Singapore’s expected Q4 GDP growth.

On a seasonally adjusted MoM basis, manufacturing output increased by 7.2%. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, it rose by 6%.

Financial intelligence institution Moody’s Analytics remarked that “the uptick in electronics production is encouraging, given the weak export growth of the sector,” as it marked a 34.9% surge.

Meanwhile, biomedical manufacturing output soared by 40.6% YoY, whilst chemical output went up by 10.1%.

Precision engineering grew by 7.3%.

On the other hand, general manufacturing output fell by 13.3% YoY as food, beverage and tobacco went down by 14%. According to Moody’s Analytics: “Some of the decline in general manufacturing came from weaker demand for construction-related products, as the sector continues to be hit by labour shortages and supply chain disruptions.”

“Transport engineering continued to weigh on production because of travel restrictions and low oil prices,” noted Moody’s Analytics, as the sector’s output logged a slump of 29.5%. The firm added that, even with the rollout of vaccines, “the travel industry will likely return to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of next year, at the very least.”