Posted on 25 Oct 2013
Singapore's manufacturing output in September grew 9.3 percent on-year, largely boosted by improving export demand in the electronics cluster.
According to the Economic Development Board (EDB), output from the electronics cluster rose 20 per cent last month, compared to the previous year.
At the same time, transport engineering output grew 14.4 per cent, supported by the marine and offshore engineering segment.
EDB said all segments in the chemicals cluster recorded growth last month, accounting for an overall growth of 5.8 per cent for the cluster.
Meanwhile, manufacturing output from the biomedical cluster was up marginally by 0.1 per cent on-year in September, and the general manufacturing cluster saw output increase 2 per cent.
Bucking the trend, output from the precision engineering cluster fell 0.8 per cent last month, partly due to weaker demand for semiconductor-related equipment and mechanical engineering work.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output increased 11.3 per cent on-year in September.
Compared to the previous month, output rose 3.7 per cent in September and increased 5.8 per cent when biomedical manufacturing is excluded.
Daniel Wilson, Asia-Pacific economist for ANZ, said: "So we think with this data for September, together with the NODX data, which was also surprising on the upside, Q3 GDP will be revised higher. We're looking for somewhere around 5.4 per cent year-on-year, and this compares to the early estimates of 5.1 per cent."
