Singapore factory output growth slows to 0.6% in July as electronics output falls

SINGAPORE’S factory production saw surprisingly low growth of 0.6 per cent in July, vastly undershooting economists’ expectations of 5.3 per cent – the median forecast in a Bloomberg poll of private analysts – owing to contraction in the key electronics cluster and further declines in biomedical manufacturing.

But all other clusters saw firm growth. Excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster, industrial production rose 2.9 per cent year on year in July. (see Amendment note)*

The linchpin electronics cluster fell 6.3 per cent year on year, reversing its growth of 2.3 per cent in June, according to preliminary data from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) on Friday (Aug 26).