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Singapore, Republic of Singapore | THE INDEPENDENT | Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced on Monday morning that based on advance estimates, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the whole of 2020 fell by 5.8 percent year on year, compared to the 0.7 percent growth in 2019.
For the fourth quarter of 2020, Singapore’s economy contracted by 3.8 percent year on year, an improvement from the 5.6 percent contraction recorded in the third quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the economy grew by 2.1 percent, following the 9.5 percent expansion in the third quarter.
In a breakdown, Singapore’s manufacturing sector expanded by 7.1 percent in 2020. It expanded by 9.5 percent year on year but contracted by 2.6 percent quarter on quarter in the fourth quarter. The ministry attributes the sector’s year-on-year growth to output expansions in the electronics, biomedical manufacturing and precision engineering clusters, which outweighed output declines in the transport engineering and general manufacturing clusters.
The construction sector contracted by 33.7 percent in 2020. It contracted by 28.5 percent year on year but expanded by 34.4 percent quarter on quarter in the fourth quarter of last year.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s services producing industries contracted by 7.8 percent in 2020. For the fourth quarter, the services producing industries shrank by 6.8 percent year on year but grew 2.4 percent quarter on quarter.
The advanced GDP estimate figure released on Monday were computed largely from data in the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the ministry. These figures are intended as an early indication of the GDP growth in the quarter, and are subject to revision when more comprehensive data become available.
The ministry said it will release the preliminary GDP estimates for the fourth quarter and the whole of 2020 this February.
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XINHUA
