A look into SG's biomedical production as world transitions to COVID normalcy

The sector logged a second month of decline.

As most countries treat COVID to be settling into endemic, Singapore's biomedical manufacturing cluster kept declining, registering 1.1% decrease year-on-year (YoY) in April 2022, which marked its second month of decline.

This is according to the banking firm, UOB, which reacted to the Economic Development Board’s report on the manufacturing sector.

It said the biomedical cluster was affected by the lower output of pharmaceuticals with 11.3% decline YoY but stronger production of medical technology cushioned the downtick, UOB Chief Economist & Head of Treasury Research & Strategy, Global Treasury, Selena Ling said.

Despite this, UOB is still optimistic that the COVID-19 normalcy will produce a positive impact on Singapore’s manufacturing sector.

It added that the manufacturing growth will stay at 4% this year as the transport engineering sector showed encouraging results on the back of easing international border restrictions. 

READ MORE: Transport engineering sector keeps manufacturing growth outlook at 4% 

"Even if manufacturing momentum tapers in the coming months, there may be a slight upside risk to our full-year 2022 manufacturing growth forecast of 3.8% YoY," Ling said with caution because of the China slowdown story in the second quarter, the global supply chain disruptions, and the aggressive monetary policy tightening by major central banks.