Front-loading drives Singapore’s factory output growth, which slows to 5.9% in April but far exceeds estimates

[SINGAPORE] Front-loading activity amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs supported Singapore’s industrial production growth in April, economists said after the latest prints were released on Monday (May 26).

The Republic’s manufacturing output gained 5.9 per cent year on year in April, slipping from the previous month’s upwardly revised 6.8 per cent growth. Still, the latest print more than doubled the median 2.5 per cent expansion forecast by private-sector economists in a Bloomberg poll.

Manufacturing for the key electronics cluster picked up, data from the Economic Development Board showed.