Singapore Industrial Output Growth Slows In September

(RTTNews) - Singapore's industrial production growth moderated in September from a quick acceleration in the previous month, preliminary data from the Economic Development Board revealed on Friday.

Industrial production expanded 9.8 percent year-on-year in September, much slower than the 22.0 percent surge in August. Economists had expected the growth to ease considerably to 3.4 percent.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, industrial production rose 2.5 percent annually in September versus a 28.5 percent jump in the prior month.

On a monthly basis, industrial production remained flat in September after rising 6.9 percent in August.

Among the major clusters, biomedical manufacturing output grew the most by 62.0 percent annually in September, driven by the pharmaceutical segment. Output produced in the precision engineering cluster was 14.7 percent higher, and the general manufacturing output advanced by 8.1 percent.

On the other hand, the transport engineering output logged a decline of 1.9 percent compared to last year.