Singapore: GDP faces positive prospects – UOB

Pablo Piovano FXStreet

Economist Barnabas Gan at UOB Group comments on the latest Industrial Production figures in Singapore.

Key Quotes

“Singapore’s industrial production expanded 30.0% y/y (+7.2% m/m sa) in May 2021, surprising market estimates for a 24.4% y/y (-0.5% m/m sa) expansion. This is the fastest growth since November 2010 (+41.2% y/y, +1.5% m/m sa).”

“All sub-sectors across the manufacturing spectrum grew on a year-on-year basis, a phenomenon not seen since April 2019.”

“We continue to expect Singapore’s electronic and precision engineering clusters to support the overall manufacturing sector, on the back of global growth and a positive external environment.”

“Given the surprisingly strong industrial production momentum in the first five months of 2021, we are upgrading our manufacturing growth outlook to 8.0% in 2021, from our previous outlook of 5.5%. This would also inject upside risk to Singapore’s full-year growth of 5.5% in 2021. The risk to our outlook appears to be balanced; upside risks to our outlook will include a quicker-than-expected rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, resulting in an accelerated recovery back to pre-COVID-19 levels. On the other hand, uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 given the introduction of new virulent variants in other parts of the world may inject downside risks to our outlook.”

Author

Pablo Piovano

FXStreet

Born and bred in Argentina, Pablo has been carrying on with his passion for FX markets and trading since his first college years.

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