Singapore’s manufacturing output fell at a sharper than expected pace last month, pulled mainly by a deep contraction in the key electronics industry, official data released yesterday showed.
The Economic Development Board (EDB) said industrial production sank 9.3 percent year on year, worse than the average 6.4 percent tipped by a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven economists.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output was down 9.2 percent, the EDB said in its monthly report.
Electronics output was down an annual 20.4 percent, chemicals dropped 8.9 percent, precision engineering sank 18.1 percent and transport engineering contracted 12.4 percent, the EDB said.
The slump was also partially blamed on slower growth in the biomedical sector where production was just 11.6 percent higher compared with 120.8 percent in May.
The city-state’s manufacturing sector, the backbone of its trade-led economy, has been hit by the global slump as consumers around the world cut back on spending.
Last week, the Singaporean government narrowed its growth outlook for this year to a contraction of 4 percent to 6 percent from minus a previously forecast 6 percent to 9 percent.
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