Singapore economy grows 4.4% in Q4

Singapore's economy grew 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2013, the authorities said Thursday.

 

The trade and industry ministry said that the growth was slower than the 5.9% year-on-year growth in the third quarter, reported Xinhua.

 

The full-year growth for 2013 is estimated to be 3.7%, a figure revealed earlier by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his New Year message.

 

The official forecast at the beginning of the year was 1-3%. It was later revised to 2.5-3.5% following stronger than expected growth in the second quarter thanks to the manufacturing sector.

 

It was then further revised to 3.5-4% .

 

Lee said the Singapore economy is expected to grow by 2-4% in 2014.

 

The manufacturing sector in the fourth quarter expanded by 3.5% year-on-year, compared with 5.3% in the third quarter.

 

The slower growth was due to a contraction in biomedical manufacturing output and slower growth in the transport engineering output.

 

The construction sector grew 4.7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, down from 5.8% in the preceding quarter.

 

Services grew 5.5%, down from 6.5% in the previous quarter.