Big miss in Q2 GDP darkens technical recession clouds, raises odds of MAS easing: analysts

IN the latest whammy to predictions, Singapore's economy in the second quarter slowed more than expected to near stalling speed based on Friday morning's flash estimates.

Year-on-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth looks set to ease to a flattish 0.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2019. This is the slowest quarterly growth since the throes of the Great Recession in mid-2009, when the economy shrank by 1.2 per cent. It is also sharply cooler than the 1.1 per cent expansion in the first three months, which was revised downwards by a smidgen from an earlier figure of 1.2 per cent.

Here are economists' quick takes on the GDP estimates:

OCBC Bank - Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy:

UOB - Alvin Liew, senior economist; and Peter Chia, senior FX strategist:

Maybank Kim Eng - analysts Chua Hak Bin and Lee Ju Ye:

HSBC Global Research - Joseph Incalcaterra, chief Asean economist:

ING - Robert Camell, chief economist and head of research, Asia-Pacific; and Prakash Sakpal, economist, Asia: