Singapore Industrial Production Plunges 10.8%

(RTTNews) - Singapore's industrial production declined for the eighth successive month in May and at a faster rate, largely due to a slump in electronics output, according to data from the Economic Development Board revealed on Monday.

Industrial production fell 10.8 percent year-on-year in May, which was worse than the 6.5 percent drop in April. Economists had expected a decrease of 7.5 percent.

Excluding bio-medical manufacturing, industrial production slid 13.0 percent annually in May, after a 5.7 percent fall in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, industrial production fell for the second straight month by 3.9 percent in May versus a 1.6 percent decrease a month ago.

Among major clusters, production in the electronics industries fell the most, by 23.0 percent annually in May due to declining demand.

Output produced in the chemicals industry dipped 9.5 percent over the year, and precision engineering production contracted sharply by 10.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the transport engineering cluster showed a marked expansion of 28.4 percent.

The aerospace segment grew 35.9 percent due to higher demand for aircraft parts from the US and Europe, as well as more maintenance, repair and overhaul jobs from commercial airlines on the back of increased global air traffic.