Singapore January factory output jumps 17.9 percent, beats expectations

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's industrial production grew more than expected in January helped by a jump in electronics output, data showed on Monday.

Manufacturing output in January rose 17.9 percent from a year earlier, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board showed. The surge in output comes after its biggest decline in two years the previous month.

The median forecast in a Reuters survey predicted an 8.2 percent expansion.

On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis, industrial production rose 6.7 percent in January. The median forecast was for an expansion of 4.7 percent.

Electronics output in January jumped 32.4 percent from a year earlier compared with the revised 4.4 percent rise in December.

Singapore's factories posted their biggest on-year output decline in two years in December, contracting a revised 3.4 percent year-on-year and declining 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis.

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)