Singapore PM says recession may be avoided

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the country may avoid a technical recession in the third quarter due to an upward revision of economic growth figures for the April-June quarter, local media reported on Tuesday.

“I think that the second quarter numbers may look a little better than the first estimates. So you might technically avoid a technical recession,” the Straits Times website quoted Lee as saying.

Singapore reported a seasonally adjusted and annualised 0.7% quarter-on-quarter contraction in second quarter gross domestic product and economists expect the government to report another decline in GDP for the July-September quarter, pushing the country into a recession.