Singapore's manufacturing output Falls 8.8% on-year

24.02.2012

Singapore's manufacturing output declined more than expected in January, as result of weaknesses in the global economy and lower activity during the Lunar New Year period.
Manufacturing output fell 8.8 per cent from a year earlier, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said.
That was the biggest fall in eight months. Economists had projected a year-on-year decline of less than 2 per cent.
The drop follows a revised year-on-year increase in manufacturing of 25.2 per cent the previous month.
Electronics output remained depressed, dropping 28.4 per cent in January from the year before, as export demand continued to weaken.
The EDB said the decline in electronics was broad-based, led by the semiconductor segment which shrank 36 per cent.
Output from chemical manufacturers dropped 12.4 per cent, with all segments in the industry recording lower production.
Output in precision engineering was also down by 13.3 per cent on-year last month, reversing a 15.1 per cent increase in December.
Output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 27.9 per cent in January on a year-on-year basis after the pharmaceuticals segment expanded 32.5 per cent, mainly due to higher production of active ingredients.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, total output contracted 15.3 per cent on-year.
For the month of January, the transport engineering cluster reported growth of 13.4 per cent on-year, led by a 27 per cent expansion in the marine & offshore sector.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, the EDB said manufacturing output increased 3.3 per cent in January 2012, after increasing 7.8 per cent in the previous month.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output rose 2.8 per cent on-month.
The EDB said on a three-month moving average basis, manufacturing output in January 2012 increased 3.6 per cent compared to a year earlier.