Singapore's output gap tipped to close earliest by mid-2022

SINGAPORE'S negative output gap could close by mid-2022 at the earliest, as a broad recovery swept across all sectors in the third quarter, according to advance estimates on Thursday (Oct 14).

Gross domestic product (GDP) in Q3 grew 6.5 per cent year on year, data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) showed, coming in just a notch below the 6.6 per cent growth that private sector economists' polled by Bloomberg had predicted.

Meanwhile, Q2's final print has been revised to 15.2 per cent, from 14.7 per cent, while Q1 is now at 1.5 per cent rather than 1.3 per cent. The jump in Q2 was due to low base effects, as the country during the same period last year was in the midst of a 8-week "circuit breaker", or partial lockdown.