Singapore factory output reverses into negative territory in March, down 9.2%

SINGAPORE’S industrial production contracted 9.2 per cent year on year (yoy) in March, dragged down by double-digit declines in the electronics and biomedical clusters, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) showed on Friday (Apr 26).

The reading came in below private sector economists’ expectations of a 1.5 per cent contraction, as indicated in a Bloomberg poll. This was also a reversal from February’s revised figure of a 4.4 per cent growth.

Excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster, factory output fell 5.9 per cent yoy.