Singapore Industrial Output Growth Moderates In May

(RTTNews) - Singapore's industrial production expanded at the slowest pace in three months in May due to the notable slowdown in electronics output growth, the Economic Development Board reported Thursday.

Industrial production logged an annual increase of 3.9 percent in May, which was slower than the 5.6 percent increase in April. Although, this was the weakest growth in three months, it was better than economists' forecast of 2.6 percent.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, industrial production growth eased to 4.9 percent from 7.8 percent in the previous month.

Electronics output grew only 3.9 percent in May after expanding 14.6 percent in the previous month. On the other hand, biomedical manufacturing cluster reported a 6.1 percent rebound. Output of transport engineering and precision engineering advanced 25.6 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, chemicals grew only 0.3 percent and general manufacturing output shrank 8.9 percent.

Month-on-month, industrial production registered a 0.4 percent fall, in contrast to the 4.9 percent increase seen in April.