SINGAPORE’S manufacturing output grew 9.1 per cent year on year in January, marking the seventh consecutive month of expansion, data from the Economic Development Board (EDB) on Wednesday (Feb 26) indicated.
This matched the median forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg, who had also projected a 9.1 per cent increase.
January’s growth outpaced December’s revised expansion of 5.2 per cent. Excluding the volatile biomedical sector, industrial production rose 7.3 per cent year on year, maintaining December’s revised growth of 7.3 per cent.
The key electronics sector expanded 18.9 per cent, accelerating from December’s 3.1 per cent growth.
Within the sector, some segments had strong gains driven by export demand, with infocomms and consumer electronics surging 47.8 per cent, semiconductors rising 17.9 per cent and computer peripherals and data storage increasing 15.4 per cent.
However, the other electronic modules and components segment shrank 15.9 per cent, partly due to weakness in the global automotive industry, EDB said.
Performance across other clusters was mixed. Biomedical manufacturing surged 19.3 per cent, up from 9.5 per cent in December, while transport engineering grew 3.8 per cent, slowing from the previous month’s 16.7 per cent expansion.
Other segments posted year-on-year declines. General manufacturing fell 1.7 per cent, chemicals contracted 2.4 per cent, and precision engineering dropped 7.5 per cent – reversing the broad-based growth seen in December.
On a seasonally adjusted, month-on-month basis, overall manufacturing output rose 4.5 per cent in January. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output increased 4.2 per cent.
