Singapore's fixed asset investments hit $8.1b in H1

The surge was led by the manufacturing sector, which contributed $4.59b.

Singapore has generated about $8.1b in fixed asset investments (FAI) in H1, which marks a 52.02% surge as compared to $5.33b in H1 2018, according to data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s economic survey.

This surge was led by the manufacturing sector, where its FAI accounted for more than half of the total figure at $4.59b. The services clusters followed at $3.51b, whilst the electronics segment’s FAI came at $2.84b.

The chemicals segment saw its FAI reach $720.4m in H1; precision engineering came at $451m; general manufacturing industries is at $284.9m; and biomedical manufacturing was at $195.4m. Transport engineering had the lowest FAI value at $99.1m, which plunged 78.84% from $468.4m in H1.

Meanwhile, foreigner investors accounted for most of the H1 figure at $7.02b as compared to the local number at $1.08b.

Singapore received most of FAI from the US at $3.52b, followed by Europe at $2.75b. Japan and the Asia Pacific region & others saw its FAI reach $327.8m and $609.8m, respectively, in the same period.

In Q2, MTI stated that FAI and total business expenditure (TBE) amounted to $4.3b and $2.8b, respectively. The services clusters contributed the most to FAI during the quarter, attracting $2.2b mostly from the research & development and engineering & environmental services clusters. This was followed by the electronics cluster, which garnered $766m of commitments.

Investors from the United States contributed the most to total FAI, at $2.3b (52% of the Q2 figure), followed by European investors at $1.1b (24%).