Manufacturers' business sentiment improves; service sectors less upbeat

Singapore

COMPANIES in Singapore's manufacturing sector expect business conditions to improve in the first half of 2020, although the services sector is less optimistic.

This is according to separate surveys by the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) and the Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) released on Friday. Both surveys were conducted from December to January and likely did not take into account recent developments of the Wuhan virus spread.

In the services sector, a net weighted balance of 2 per cent of firms predict a less favourable business outlook from January to June …