Trade-related sectors to buoy Singapore's GDP growth

It could expand by 1-3%, similar to the 2% growth last year.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is optimistic in its outlook for the Singapore economy this year, seeing overall economic expansion to hover between 1-3%.

In its latest Monetary Policy Statement, MAS noted that the outlook for the global economy has improved since the October 2016.

"Global capital expenditure has begun to turn up amid some strengthening in business sentiment while improving labour market conditions should sustain final demand in the developed economies. The outlook for China has stabilised on the back of firming corporate profitability and accommodative fiscal policy," MAS said.

This would lead to Singapore's trade-related sectors to support overall GDP growth this year. For instance, the turnaround in the global IT cycle will continue to benefit the domestic semiconductor and precision engineering industries. However, it should be considered that the manufacturing sector would likely remain patchy.

Meanwhile, the modern services cluster is expected to expand at a slightly faster pace in 2017, led by a pickup in the financial sector and firm demand for ICT services.

On the healthcare and education side, services will be underpinned by resilient demand, spending on discretionary retail items and other services is expected to be dampened by the still-subdued labour market and weak consumer sentiment.