Singapore: Economy to grow by nearly 3% in 2017: PM

  • Singapore’s economy should grow by close to 3% in 2017, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on 22 Oct 17. PM Lee noted that this was due to a strong showing by the manufacturing sector, and added that services performed “sort of okay” as well.
  • While services are not as strong as they could be and construction has been slow, PM Lee noted that the latter sector could be lifted – “if we need to build more, we can build more”.
  • PM Lee said one difficult aspect is the need to work on improving productivity, especially in services. “We have to work at it patiently, sector by sector,” he added, noting that 23 Industry Transformation Maps are being rolled out to help.
  • “The strength in the external sector has surprised us, but it masks the weaknesses in the domestic sector, particularly in the labour and property markets,” ANZ economist Ng Weiwen said.
  • “Property is showing signs of recovery but if you look at its peak in 2013 compared to now, prices are still 10% lower. The labour market is still subdued – there are still more job seekers than there are job vacancies. So, the external strength hasn’t filtered through to the broader economy.”

External Link : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-economy-to-grow-by-nearly-3-this-year-pm-lee

24-Oct-2017