Singapore’s industrial output unexpectedly rose at the slowest pace in nine months, heralding slower economic growth after a record expansion in the first half of the year.
Manufacturing, which accounts for about a quarter of the economy, climbed 8.1 percent last month from a year earlier, after a 9.9 percent gain in July, the Singapore Economic Development Board said in a statement yesterday. The median estimate of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for an 11.7 percent gain.
Industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 6.3 percent last month from July, when it rose 1.5 percent from the previous month,the report showed.
Electronics production rose 32.8 percent from a year earlier after climbing 25.2 percent in July and 52.4 percent in June. Pharmaceutical output dropped 30.8 percent.
Overseas demand for goods by Asian manufacturers such as Singapore-based Hi-P International Ltd, whose customers include BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd, may cool as the global recovery slows.
Singapore’s economy, which expanded an unprecedented 17.9 percent in the first half of this year, will moderate in the coming months, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said last month.
“Singapore’s reliance on global demand remains,” said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Capital Economics (Asia) Pte in Singapore. “A bumpy recovery in the global economy could dampen strong upswings in manufacturing activity from here.”
The country’s non-oil domestic exports climbed 31.2 percent from a year earlier last month, after a revised 18.3 percent gain in July, a report showed on Friday last week. Still, manufacturing contracted for the first time in 16 months last month, according to the Singapore Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management’s purchasing managers’ index.
Growth in Europe’s services and manufacturing industries weakened more than economists forecast this month, adding to evidence the recovery in the region is losing steam, a report showed on Thursday.
A composite index based on a survey of euro-area purchasing managers in both industries declined to 53.8 from 56.2 lat month, London-based Markit Economics said.
Economic expansion in the US and China has also slowed.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
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‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so