Singapore economy blew the gates off with 12% growth in last quarter of 2010

But construction slowed dramatically, falling 2 % having grown 6.7 % in the previous quarter.

According to Singapore's Ministry of Trade in Industry, the expansion was an improvement from the growth of 10.5 per cent in the previous quarter. On a seasonally-adjusted quarter-onquarter annualised basis, the economy grew by 3.9 per cent, an upturn from the contraction of 16.7 per cent in the preceding quarter.

The manufacturing sector expanded by 25.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter, faster than the 13.7 per cent growth posted in the third quarter. On a sequential basis, the sector grew by an annualised rate of 0.7 per cent after a sharp contraction of 48.5 per cent in the previous quarter. Growth was led by the biomedical manufacturing cluster, which saw a strong recovery in pharmaceutical output.

In contrast, the construction sector contracted by 2.0 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter,compared to the 6.7 per cent growth recorded in the preceding quarter. On a sequential basis, the sector contracted by 10.2 per cent (annualised), mainly due to the rescheduling of some institutional and civil engineering projects to 2011.

The services producing industries expanded by 8.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, following the growth of 10.2 per cent in the previous quarter. On a sequential basis, the sector posted an annualised growth of 5.6 per cent, up from 0.5 per cent in the preceding quarter. Growth was bolstered by the financial services sector which saw increased activities for fund management, commercial bank lending and foreign exchange trading. Trade-related and tourism-related services sectors also contributed to the healthy growth in the fourth quarter.