Singapore’s industrial output unexpectedly fell for a second month in September as the faltering global economy hurt demand for electronics and pharmaceutical goods.
Manufacturing fell 2.5% from a year earlier after a revised 2.3% drop in August, the Economic Development Board said in a report today. The median of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 1.8% increase.
The report adds to evidence of an economic contraction in the Southeast Asian nation, after exports unexpectedly declined last month. The International Monetary Fund this month cut its projections for global expansion this year and next, saying it sees “alarmingly high” risks of a steeper slowdown, and Singapore’s Trade Ministry said growth will be weighed down for the rest of 2012 by a “subdued” world economy.
“We are still quite pessimistic about Singapore industrial production,” Jackit Wong, a Hong Kong-based economist at Natixis Asia, said before the report. “We expect that there will be no improvement in global trade growth” next year, while Asia’s trade could show “modest improvement” in the first half of 2013, Wong said.
The Singapore dollar was little changed at $1.2217 a dollar at 12:37 p.m. local time.
Output fell a seasonally adjusted 1.8% from the previous month, when it slid 2.3%.
Electronics production declined 12.2% from a year earlier in September, while pharmaceutical output fell 8.9%. Chemicals decreased 0.2%, the report showed.
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