Singapore's GDP grows 2.5% in Q1, below market expectations

SINGAPORE'S economy grew 2.5 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2017, coming below market expectations.

The latest reading showed an easing from the 2.9 per cent growth in the previous quarter, based on advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Thursday.

Quarter-on quarter, the economy contracted a seasonally-adjusted 1.9 per cent, reversing the strong rebound of 12.3 per cent seen in the preceding quarter.

The median forecast of 23 economists surveyed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore released earlier was for gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter to grow 2.6 per cent year-on-year, up from 1.3 per cent previously.

The manufacturing sector posted a 6.6 per cent growth year-on-year in the first quarter, moderating from the 11.5 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

Growth was supported primarily by robust output expansions in the electronics and precision engineering clusters, which outweighed output declines in the biomedical manufacturing, transport engineering and general manufacturing clusters.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis, the sector saw a pullback in growth in the first quarter, contracting 6.6 per cent following the 39.8 per cent surge in the preceding quarter.