Some economists brace for technical recession this year even as MTI says it is not expecting one

SINGAPORE should not rule out the possibility of a technical recession this year, some economists said, even though the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Thursday (May 25) stated this is not its baseline scenario.

“We are less optimistic than MTI and see the economy stagnating rather than rebounding in the coming quarters,” Maybank economists Chua Hak Bin and Lee Ju Ye said.

Singapore may slip into a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of sequential contraction, if the boost from China’s reopening fails to materialise in the second quarter, said the Maybank team, adding: “The return of China tourists has been more a trickle than a flood.”