Exterior of the Singapore Exchange building.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Singapore’s economy avoided a technical recession in the second quarter, growing 0.7% year-on-year and 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, advanced estimates showed.
Economists polled by Reuters expected to see growth of 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 0.6% year-on-year.
In the first quarter, Singapore’s economy contracted by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis and saw marginal growth of 0.4% year-on-year.
The latest data comes after the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state’s central bank and financial regulator, warned of an “uncertain” growth outlook earlier this month.
“The near-term outlook remains uncertain with downside risks,” the MAS said in an annual review. “Should latent vulnerabilities in the global financial system emerge in the coming months, consumer and investor confidence could take a further hit, with adverse implications for the broader economy,” it said.
In its annual review, MAS estimated the gross domestic product for 2023 to ease to a range of 0.5% to 2.5%, lower than the growth of 3.6% in 2022.
The Singapore dollar slightly strengthened against the U.S. dollar after the GDP release and traded at $1.321 against the greenback.
Singapore’s manufacturing sector noticeably led declines in overall growth, contracting 7.5% from a year ago, a further decline from the contraction of 5.3% in the previous quarter.
“The weak performance of the sector