Economists raise Singapore's Q3 GDP outlook, 2017 growth seen steady

Economists have raised their forecasts for Singapore's economic growth in the third quarter, with sectors such as manufacturing, finance and insurance seen supporting the economy.

Singapore economy expands by 1.8 per cent in Quarter 1
The skyline of the central business district in Singapore Reuters

Economists have raised their forecasts for Singapore's economic growth in the third quarter, with sectors such as manufacturing, finance and insurance seen supporting the economy.

The quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), however, showed no change in the economists' median forecasts for full-year growth in 2017 and also for 2018, compared to three months ago.

Economists polled said that they expect the economy to grow 2.5 percent this year, unchanged from their forecast in June, a central bank survey showed on Wednesday.

This forecast remains unchanged from the previous survey in June earlier this year.

In August, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that full-year 2017 GDP growth should come in at around 2.5 percent, and revised its official 2017 growth forecast to a range of 2.0 to 3.0 percent from 1.0 to 3.0 percent previously.

The Singapore economy expanded by 2.9 percent in the second quarter of the year.

The MAS survey's median forecast for year-on-year GDP growth in the third quarter rose to 3.1 percent, up from the previous median of 2.8 percent.

Manufacturing is expected to continue its turnaround from the end of last year, with economists surveyed predicting growth of 6.6 per cent for the sector, up from their 5 per cent growth prediction in June's survey.

The finance and insurance industry is expected to post the second-highest growth of 2.9 per cent, an increase from the 1.9 per cent growth predicted previously.

For the third quarter, the consumer price index (CPI) inflation and MAS core inflation are expected to come in at 0.7 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

For the year, the median CPI-all items inflation forecast edged down slightly to 0.8 percent from the 0.9 percent reported in the last survey.

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