Singapore GDP growth eased to 1.3% in Q1: MTI estimates

Gains in the construction sector failed to offset manufacturing decline.

Singapore's GDP growth slowed to 1.3% in Q1 from 1.94% in the previous quarter as the manufacturing sector continued to weaken, according to advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). 

Also read: Singapore GDP growth slows to 3.2% in 2018

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy expanded by 2.0%, faster than the 1.4% growth in the previous quarter.

Also read: Singapore is 3rd most vulnerable APAC country to Chinese trade decline

The manufacturing sector contracted 1.9% in Q1, reversing the 5.1% expansion in the previous quarter as heavy output declines in the precision engineering and electronics clusters, which more than offset output expansions in the biomedical manufacturing and transport engineering clusters.

On the other hand, the construction sector grew by 1.4% YoY in Q1 which represented a turnaround from the 1.0% decline in the previous quarter. This also marked the first quarter of positive growth following 10 consecutive quarters of decline.

The services producing industries also expanded by 2.1% YoY, slightly higher than the 1.8% growth in Q4 2018, supported by the information & communications and business services sectors.