Singapore on track for 2022 recovery despite lower factory optimism: Watchers

EBBING optimism in the factory sector is unlikely to derail Singapore's economic recovery, watchers have told The Business Times, in the wake of official business sentiment surveys released by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Department of Statistics on Friday (Oct 29).

While the mood in services has overtaken manufacturing, respondents from the businesses in both sectors generally said they expected conditions to improve in the October-to-March period, against the past quarter.

Selena Ling, chief economist at OCBC, said: "As business and consumer confidence improves, we should see the domestically-oriented sectors like consumer-facing services and even construction play catch-up. By 2022, more normalised growth should materialise, as most of the low-base effects should have dissipated."