Singapore’s export-driven economy contracted 10.1 percent in the first quarter from the previous year, the government said yesterday, warning it saw no clear signs of a recovery in the immediate future.
The trade ministry maintained its forecast for the economy to shrink between 9 percent and 6 percent for the whole of this year as the city-state grappled with its worst recession since independence 44 years ago.
Compared with the previous quarter, GDP fell 14.6 percent in the first three months as Singapore’s major export markets remained mired in recession.
Singapore’s fortunes are dependent on the health of the world’s major economies, which buy much of the country’s exports, including microchips, pharmaceuticals and oilrigs.
The economy fell into recession late last year as the global economic downturn accelerated but still managed to grow 1.1 percent.
“The reason we have a forecast range of minus 6 [percent] to minus 9 percent [GDP decline] is because we really don’t know,” Ravi Menon, second permanent secretary at the trade ministry, said at a news briefing.
“What we are a little surer of is that we have probably seen the bottom ... But what we do not know is whether we are going to stay at the bottom for a little bit longer or whether we are going to start having a decisive rebound,” he said.
The key manufacturing sector contracted by 26.6 percent from the previous quarter’s shrinkage of 21.3 percent as the global downturn hurt demand for exports.
Services, another pillar of the economy, contracted 10.3 percent quarter-on-quarter as tourism-related arrivals tumbled, but the decline was less than the 15.0 percent fall in the previous quarter, the ministry said.
It painted a more optimistic outlook for the year, compared with its assessment last month, saying the sharp collapse in global trade late last year and early this year has tapered off.
“While trade is still expected to be weak for the rest of 2009, further declines of the magnitude seen earlier this year seem unlikely,” it said.
However, “on balance, there are still no decisive indicators of economic recovery,” the ministry said.
The trade ministry said it was maintaining its earlier projection that the country’s total trade with the rest of the world would shrink between 25 percent and 22 percent this year from last year. Key exports are forecast to contract by 13 percent to 10 percent this year.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS