Surprise Q4 growth of 4.3% lifts Singapore’s full-year GDP to 4%
On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the economy grew 0.1% in Q4, says MTI
SINGAPORE’S economy expanded 4 per cent year on year in 2024, faster than the 1.1 per cent growth recorded in the previous year, advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) showed on Thursday (Jan 2) morning.
This makes last year’s gross domestic product better than the official forecast of “around 3.5 per cent” that MTI had narrowed to last November.
Fourth-quarter GDP growth came in at 4.3 per cent, slower than the revised 5.4 per cent recorded in Q3. This was as growth for the manufacturing sector decelerated to 4.2 per cent, from a jump of 11.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the economy grew 0.1 per cent in Q4, moderating from the previous quarter’s revised 3.2 per cent expansion.
In Q4, growth in the manufacturing sector was driven by output expansions in the electronics and transport engineering clusters, said MTI. For the full year, manufacturing grew 3.5 per cent year on year.
On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the sector contracted 2.5 per cent, reversing from Q3’s 12.8 per cent expansion.
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Construction expanded 5.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, picking up pace from the previous quarter’s 4.7 per cent growth. This was due to an increase in public-sector construction output. For the whole of 2024, the sector expanded 4.8 per cent.
The sector also grew at a faster pace of 3.4 per cent on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, compared to 1.6 per cent growth in the third quarter.
In Q4, the services industries grew 4.3 per cent year on year, slightly higher than the 4 per cent recorded in Q3. For the full year, the sector rose by 4.1 per cent.
On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the sector grew just 0.6 per cent, slowing down from the previous quarter’s 1 per cent growth.
Among the services sectors, the wholesale and retail trade and transportation and storage sectors charted the biggest growth, collectively expanding 5.6 per cent year on year, extending the previous quarter’s 5.2 per cent growth.
But on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the sector shrank 0.2 per cent, pulling back from the 0.8 per cent growth in the third quarter.
In 2025, MTI expects Singapore’s economy to grow by 1 to 3 per cent.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had earlier revealed the 4 per cent full-year growth figure in his New Year’s Day message on Tuesday evening.
In his speech, he noted that while global inflation has moderated, price levels have still not fallen and are not yet at pre-pandemic levels. More targeted help is on the way for older people and lower-income groups to cope with cost-of-living increases, he added.
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