Sentiment for services, manufacturing diverges

[SINGAPORE] Local manufacturers' business optimism has waned, while firms in the services sector have turned more upbeat, the government's latest quarterly surveys show.

But the snapshot of where Singapore companies believe business is headed in the second half of 2014, also showed clear differences within each sector. The global economic recovery bodes well for some, even as domestic labour and property-related policies are dampening the business sentiment of others.

For the services sector, a weighted 21 per cent of the 1,500 firms polled by the Department of Statistics (DoS) between June and mid-July expect business to pick up in the coming six months, up from 15 per cent of those polled in April. The proportion of pessimistic firms also dipped to 8 per cent, from 1…