Singapore services expected to stay optimistic, as cheer in factory sector cools

SINGAPORE’S services sector has stayed rosy on the 6-month outlook, but manufacturing sentiment is softening on rising costs, official business surveys indicated on Friday (Apr 29).

Despite the expected uplift from the broad domestic and border reopening, the divergent trend is expected to continue as Singapore’s recovering economy normalises, analysts told The Business Times.

UOB economist Barnabas Gan remarked that manufacturing and trade “have been supporting growth and shouldering the lion’s share of the recovery” during the Covid-19 pandemic in the past 2 years, “so that gives an upside bias to the services industries”.