Services proved resilient and construction has finally returned to positive territory, but the slip in manufacturing - amid a gloomy global environment - led analysts to warn that factories have not yet hit rock bottom.SINGAPORE'S economy is growing at the slowest clip since the global financial crisis, according to flash data for the first three months of the year.
After all, on a quarter-on-quarter and seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew by 2 per cent - faster than the previous quarter's 1.4 per cent. DBS senior economist Irvin Seah, citing the quarterly pick-up, added that"the economy is far from a recession". But Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank, said that it"may be too early to call a bottom for the domestic manufacturing and electronics industries" until the US sorts out its trade and tariff plans for China, Japan and Europe.
The services industries pulled their weight, with year-on-year growth of 2.1 per cent - compared with 1.8 per cent in the quarter before - with a lift from both information and communications, and business services. Irene Cheung, senior strategist for ANZ Research, also expects the private-sector boost to construction to last through the rest of this year."Indeed, investment is where we forecast a stronger contribution to growth," she told BT, adding that she expects investments to be sustained by both collective-sale redevelopments and ongoing public works.
"Until we see a clear bottom and subsequent improvement in the China and global growth prospects, the overall picture for the Singapore economy remains cautious," she wrote in a morning note.
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