Singapore Industrial Output Falls 2.1%, Less Than Forecast

(RTTNews) - Singapore's industrial production continued to decline in September, though the pace of decrease has eased considerably since August, data from the Economic Development Board revealed on Thursday.

Industrial production dropped 2.1 percent year-on-year in September, following an 11.6 percent plunge in the prior month. That was also below the 4.8 percent decrease expected by economists. Production has been falling since October last year.

Excluding bio-medical manufacturing, industrial production rebounded 0.1 percent annually in September after a 12.7 percent slump in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, industrial production surged 10.7 percent in September, reversing a sharp 10.8 percent fall in August.

Among major clusters, production in the biomedical manufacturing industries fell the most, by 18.9 percent in September, as the pharmaceutical segment contracted 41.4 percent from last year.

The second-most significant decrease was observed in the chemicals cluster, which declined 12.9 percent.

At the same time, electronics output registered a double-digit annual growth of 10.2 percent, and that of the transport engineering segment posted an increase of 13.2 percent.