Singapore factory growth falls to single digits in January as high base starts to bite

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S manufacturing slowdown may have begun, with factory output coming in below forecast in January on the back of a high base from 2 bumper years.

The linchpin electronics cluster is still expected to drive the factory sector in 2022 - but chip production is hitting a capacity ceiling, and demand may also weaken, especially as war is now breaking out in Europe, analysts have said.

Industrial production (IP) rose by 2.0 per cent year on year in January, cooling from 16.7 per cent in the month prior, Economic Development Board (EDB) data out on Friday (Feb 25) showed.

The IP print fell short of the 11.6 per cent growth estimate in a Bloomberg poll.

"We still forecast a positive IP growth this year, but likely at a much milder pace than what we saw in 2020 and 2021," Jung Sung Eun, senior economist at Oxford Eco…