Services sector's outlook gloomy for H1, manufacturers marginally upbeat

A NET weighted balance of 14 per cent of firms in Singapore's services sector expects worse business conditions for January to June 2017, compared with July-December 2016, the Department of Statistics said in a report on Tuesday.

Within the services sector, all industries expect business activity to remain the same or deteriorate in the first half of 2017 from the second half of 2016, SingStat said.

Separately, the Economic Development Board released a report on Tuesday saying an overall net weighted balance of 2 per cent of manufacturers expects a better business situation for H1 2017 compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

Within the manufacturing sector the electronics cluster was the most optimistic, the agency said.