Singapore - Singapore's export-reliant economy contracted
10.1 per cent in the first quarter compared with a year ago and could
shrink by 6 to 9 per cent for the whole year, the government said
Thursday.
Amid the global economic downturn, the city-state was in its worst
recession since independence from Malaysia in 1965.
'There are still no decisive indicators of economic recovery,' the
Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement.
'At this point in time, any new risk, such as an acute worsening
of the influenza A (H1N1) situation or undisclosed weaknesses in US
or European banks coming to light, could set back the process of
economic recovery by several quarters,' it said, referring to the
recent outbreak of swine flu.
According to figures released Thursday by the International
Enterprise Singapore government agency, the city-state's external
trade in the first quarter slumped 28 per cent from the same period a
year ago after a 9.6-per-cent decline recorded in the previous
quarter.
The contraction 'was larger than expected and can be attributed to
the synchronized slowdown in global demand' for both oil and non-oil
trade, the trade-promotion agency said.
For the whole year, total trade was expected to shrink 22 to 25
per cent. In the first quarter, total trade was at 133 billion US
dollars.
The final numbers for Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP)
were slightly better than estimates issued in April when the
government expected GDP for the first quarter to shrink 11.5 per cent
year-on-year.
However, the government maintained its forecast that GDP for the
whole of 2009 would drop as much as 9 per cent.
In 2008, the Singapore economy grew by 1.1 per cent, compared with
7.8 per cent a year earlier.
On a quarter-to-quarter basis, Singapore's GDP dropped 14.6 per
cent from January to March and 16.4 per cent in the last quarter of
2008.
In the first three months of 2009, manufacturing slumped 26.6 per
cent, worse than the contraction of 21.3 per cent in the previous
quarter.
The service industry suffered a 10.3-per-cent decline in the first
quarter, less than the 15-per-cent drop recorded a quarter earlier.
USA
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