SINGAPORE: According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Singapore’s economy expanded 14.3% year on year in the second quarter of this year, owing to a low base in the same period last year, when a COVID-19 “circuit breaker” was deployed (Jul 14). The second-quarter advance projections, which are based mostly on data collected in the first two months of the quarter, were higher than the previous quarter’s rise of 1.3 percent.
Given the low base from last year, when the circuit breaker halted practically all economic activities from April 7 to June 1, causing the economy to decline by 13.3% during the same period, a good GDP figure was widely expected for the second quarter.
In absolute terms, Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) remained 0.9 percent below its pre-pandemic level in the second quarter of this year, according to MTI.
The GDP shrank by 2% quarter over quarter, seasonally adjusted, in the second quarter, reversing the previous quarter’s 3.1 percent expansion.
In a recent quarterly survey, private-sector analysts polled by the central bank predicted 15% year-on-year growth for the April to June quarter of this year.
READ: The contours of Singapore’s post-COVID economy are becoming more apparent
After contracting by 5.4 percent last year in the country’s worst recession since independence, the Singapore economy is expected to gradually rebound this year.
For the time being, the official growth prediction for 2021 remains at 4% to 6%, with a reassessment scheduled for next month.
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