Singapore's economy grows 8.1 per cent in 2004
Associated Press
Singapore, January 3, 2005
Singapore said on Monday the city-state's economy grew by 8.1 per cent in 2004, largely due to final-quarter growth of 5.4 per cent from a year ago.
That would make it one of Asia's fastest-growing economies after China, which recorded growth of around nine per cent in 2004. The government warned however that the optimism would not remain for long, because growth has begun to slow and the country's Gross Domestic Product was expected to moderate to four to 4.5 per cent this year.
Singapore's export-oriented $95 billion (euro 69.75 billion) economy is highly dependent on manufacturing -- a sector which only grew by 9.5 per cent in the October-December quarter. It had grown 11.9 per cent in the preceding quarter, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
The ministry also said the slowed growth in manufacturing was mainly due to a slowdown in the electronics sector. Services expanded five per cent over the last three months of 2003, slower than the 7.2 per cent on-year growth achieved in the third quarter of 2004.
The pace of expansion for most services eased, the ministry said. In particular, growth was "moderated" in the wholesale and retail trade, and the hotel and restaurant sectors, in line with slower increases in visitor arrivals and trade in services.
Bucking the trend was business services, which strengthened due to the pickup in real estate, professional services and an increase in activity by business representative offices in the country, the ministry said in a statement.
The winners in the recent report were the transport engineering and chemicals and the biomedical manufacturing sectors, while the construction sector continued to drag the economy down, shrinking 7.4 per cent in the last three months of 2004.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.