Singapore economy still on track to grow, despite Omicron risk

SINGAPORE is still headed for positive economic growth in 2022, but the potential hit from the highly mutated new Covid-19 variant remains to be seen, economists told The Business Times, as the global spread of Omicron is expected to put the brakes on international border reopenings.

Steven Cochrane, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Moody's Analytics, said "Singapore's economy is expected to enjoy steady growth throughout 2022", with no quarterly downturns in the near-term forecast.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has forecast that gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 3 per cent to 5 per cent year on year in 2022 - a forecast range that Selena Ling, chief economist at OCBC, expects to hold up, adding that it "may be a little premature to start shading down the 2022 GDP growth for now".