Saturday 27 September 2008

Singapore Slips towards Recession

Singapore would probably slip into a recession this quarter for the first time since 2002 as exports and manufacturing slumped and fewer tourists visited the city state, economists said.
PDF

1 comment:

Guanyu said...

Singapore Slips towards Recession

Bloomberg in Singapore
27 September 2008

Singapore would probably slip into a recession this quarter for the first time since 2002 as exports and manufacturing slumped and fewer tourists visited the city state, economists said.

Growth in the US$161 billion economy faltered as exports dropped for four consecutive months and industrial output declined in July and last month.

Gross domestic product contracted 6 per cent in the second quarter from the preceding three months.

Asian policymakers are warning of a deepening slowdown in their economies as demand from the United States, Europe and Japan weakens amid turmoil in global financial markets.

Goldman Sachs last month estimated that 50 per cent of the world economy faces recession, with richer nations faring the worst.

“The Singapore economy is facing headwinds on multiple fronts,” said Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered.

“Manufacturing is down, the government thinks tourism will fall short of targets and the unravelling of the global financial crisis will slow banking activity here,” he said.

The nation of 4.8 million people would join others in posting a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

New Zealand contracted in the three months to June, triggering its first recession in 10 years.

Japan shrank 3 per cent last quarter, the steepest drop since 2001, while the eurozone contracted 0.2 per cent in the same period.

Australia’s expansion last quarter was the weakest in more than three years as consumers cut spending, and Taiwan’s central bank warned of higher “downside” growth risks.

Singapore’s government last month lowered its estimate for this year’s growth to between 4 per cent and 5 per cent from an earlier forecast of as much as 6 per cent.

The possibility of a recession in Singapore could not be ruled out amid the worst financial turmoil in global markets since the 1930s, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said last weekend.

Industrial production last month dropped 12.2 per cent after a 21.5 per cent decline in July, the Economic Development Board said yesterday.

Visitor arrivals last month fell 7 per cent from a year earlier, the biggest tumble since the outbreak of Sars in Asia froze travel in 2003.