SINGAPORE’S factory output rose 9.8 per cent year on year in September, easing from the previous month’s surprise jump as electronics production returned to a far more modest level of growth, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) showed on Friday (Oct 25).
Excluding the typically volatile biomedical sector, last month’s industrial production grew just 4.5 per cent year on year.
Industrial production in August was also revised upward to 22 per cent year on year, with electronics output surging a revised 50 per cent.
In September however, the electronics sector expanded just 1.9 per cent year on year. It was dragged mainly by the infocomms and consumer electronics segment even as the computer peripherals and data storage as well as semiconductor segment pulled ahead.
Biomedical manufacturing jumped 62 per cent year on year in September, boosted by a 143.9 per cent expansion in the pharmaceuticals segment. This was due to a different mix of active pharmaceutical ingredients being produced and higher production of biological products, EDB said.
Most other segments also clocked a year-on-year increase in production last month:
Transport engineering was the only sector that shrank in September, with output dipping 1.9 per cent year on year.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, September’s manufacturing output was “largely unchanged” from the previous month, EDB said. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, however, industrial production fell 7.6 per cent.
