February 15, the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore announced that the Singapore economy contracted by 5.4% in 2020, which is slightly smaller than the official preliminary estimate of 5.8%.
According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore’s economy contracted by 2.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, an improvement from 5.8% in the previous quarter.
After quarterly adjustment, the fourth quarter increased by 3.8% month-on-month, continuing the growth momentum of 9% in the previous quarter.
Among various industries, Singapore’s manufacturing industry grew by 7.3% year-on-year last year.
The growth is mainly due to the strong performance of biomedical manufacturing, electronics and precision engineering clusters.
The construction industry shrank by 35.9% last year, mainly due to the impact of construction engineering activities.
The service industry shrank by 6.9% last year, and the service industry contracted throughout the year due to the pandemic.
With the exception of the finance and insurance industry and the information and communication industries, they achieved 5% and 2.1% growth respectively.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry pointed out that there are still uncertainties and risks in the global economy, including the different paces of global economic recovery and the fiscal system pressure on economies due to the pandemic.
However, as the pandemic is gradually under control, Singapore’s economy will slowly recover in 2021, and some externally driven industries, including trade-related services, will benefit from the recovery of external demand.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore maintains its economic growth forecast for 2021, predicting that the Singaporean economy will grow by 4% to 6% this year.
