| Singapore continues the recovery from its worst recession |
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12/10/2009 16:43 (852 Day 17:43 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Singapore's economy has surged for a second consecutive quarter and the government boosted its 2009 growth forecast. It now expects the economy to contract by just 2.5% to 2% from the previous year.
Gross domestic product grew an annualized, seasonally adjusted 14.9 percent in the third quarter, following a jump of 22 percent the previous quarter, the Trade and Industry Ministry said Monday, AP reported. The economy also expanded from a year earlier for the first time since the third quarter of 2008, the ministry said. GDP was up 0.8 percent from the July-September quarter of 2008.
"A clear but modest recovery is under way globally, at least for the next three or four quarters," the ministry said, according to the same source. "However, economic activity will probably remain below pre-crisis levels because of the drag on demand in the developed economies."
Singapore was the first Asian economy to go into recession as a result of the financial crisis that began in the US housing sector -- but also among the earliest beneficiaries of improved demand in industrial countries this year, AFP informs. On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, GDP surged 14.9 percent following a 22 percent expansion in the second quarter to June, the ministry said.
It was the second successive quarter-on-quarter growth period, the same source reported. Growth in the third quarter was driven by expansion in the biomedical and electronics manufacturing industries, which are the key pillars of Singapore's industrial sector.
Singapore relies on trade, finance and tourism to sustain one of Asia's highest living standards, according to AP. The growth in the second and third quarters is the most of any six-month period since the government began releasing quarterly GDP figures in 1975, said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, senior Asia economist at HSBC in Singapore.
BBC wrote that despite the growth, Singapore still expects its economy to have shrunk during 2009 as a whole, though this contraction is expected to be between 2% and 2.5% rather than the 4%-6% range previously forecast.
"A regional, if not world, trade recovery has begun and looks set to continue," said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, senior Asia economist at HSBC in Singapore, who expects Singapore's economy to grow 6.5% next year, according to the same source.
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