Singapore’s growth expectation in 2015 trimmed down to 2.8% from 3.1%

External factors remain shaky.

Economists have turned more conservative in their forecast for this year’s economic performance, as the downside risk rose despite all the talk about recovery in the US.

According to a report by DBS,market expectation for economic performance this year has been lowered. Based on the latest MAS professional forecaster survey, consensus has adjusted its growth expectation for 2015 down to 2.8% in the current survey, compared to 3.1% in the Dec14 poll. The official forecast for 2015 GDP growth currently stands at 2.0-4.0%.

DBS adds that essentially, the US recovery has been uneven. High frequency data remains mixed and fourth quarter GDP growth has been revised downwards. And this is amid risk rate hikes from the Fed. Separately, though Japan and the Eurozone are out of recession, significant structural impediments remain and outlook is still bleak. And China will be growing slower as well. Over-capacity there in previous years will take time to digest. So despite all the talk and optimism about global recovery, outlook in Singapore is turning dicier.

Here’s more from DBS:

In addition, though the drastic drop in Feb15 NODX came after the survey, the fact is export performance has deteriorated significantly more than expected.

And this is even after accounting for all the technical distortions in the month.February NODX figures have certainly dented expectation. Outlook on the export front looks grim DBS analysts maintain the view that there is downside risk to their full year GDP growth forecast of 3.2% for 2015.