Singapore's economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2007 slowed down to 6%, following a 9% gain in the third quarter.
This was the weakest performance since the second quarter of 2003. The contraction was due to slower growth in the manufacturing sector, where weak output in the biomedical cluster dragged down overall growth from 10.3% to 0.5%.
Other sectors fared better with construction expanding by 24.4% from 19.2% in the third quarter and transport engineering registering a double digit growth. The services producing industries grew by 8.3% while financial services continued its rapid growth. Other clusters such as wholesale and retail trade, transport and storage, and business services all performed better in the fourth quarter.
The 7.5% growth for 2007 marks the Singapore economy's fourth straight year of strong growth. The economy is expected to register slower growth of 4.5% - 6.5% in 2008.
More detailed figures for 2007 and its last quarter will be released next month in the Economic Survey of Singapore.
Sources:
- "EDB draws record S$16b in fixed asset investments in manufacturing", Channel NewsAsia, 31 December 2007
- "Singapore's economy grows 7.5% in 2007: PM Lee", Channel NewsAsia, 31 December 2007
- "Singapore growth slows to 6.0 percent in fourth quarter: ministry", Channel NewsAsia, 2 January 2008
- "S'pore's Q4 GDP falls 3.2% from Q3", The Business Times, 2 January 2008
- "S'pore Q4 GDP growth eased on lower output", The Straits Times, 2 January 2008
- "Advance GDP Estimates for Fourth Quarter 2007", Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) Press Release, 2 January 2008
