Singapore’s economy remains on its impressive growth path as it bounces back strong in the third quarter of 2024, growing at 4.1 percent year on year-higher than the 2.9 percent seen during the second quarter and better than economists had earlier predicted at 3.8 percent expansion during July to September, as per the advanced estimate of the Ministry of Trade and Industry released on October 14. Still, the figure marked a stronger increase than the economists’ earlier projections of a 3.8 percent expansion during the period of July to September.
The economy grew by 2.1% in seasonally adjusted quarterly terms and more than doubled the growth recorded from the previous quarter at 0.4%. The expansion in manufacturing was led by a strong recovery in output that rose by an annual rate of 7.5% from a contraction of 1.1% in the previous quarter. Growth was noted in all sectors of manufacturing except biomedical manufacturing.
Other industries that still reported high performances include construction, which accelerated to 3.1 percent y-o-y growth. Of course, this growth is slower than what was seen in the second quarter at 4.8 percent. Growth in this sector has been attributed to the rise of the public sector projects.
Collective growth in the services industries was registered at 4.3 percent in the information and communications, finance and insurance sectors, and in professional services compared with 5.4 percent during the previous quarter. Collective growth was boosted by better information technology and business representative offices and general activity in the finance and insurance sector, which witnessed all-round growth in its diverse segments, especially in the banking and financial services sector.
Wholesale and retail trade grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter following a growth of 3.9 percent in the previous quarter but the retail trade was no longer growing.
The government early this year reduced its growth estimate for 2024 to 2% to 3% revising the upper target from an earlier estimate of 1% to 3%.
