Singapore's economy contracted 10.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, foreign news agencies quoted the Singaporean government as saying on May 21.
The trade ministry maintained its forecast for the economy to shrink between 9.0 and 6.0 percent for the whole of 2009, saying there were “still no decisive indicators of economic recovery.”
Compared with the previous quarter, the national gross domestic product (GDP) fell 14.6 percent in the first three months of this year.
”Except for construction and financial services, all major sectors of the economy experienced further quarter-on-quarter declines,” the ministry said in a statement released on May 20.
The key manufacturing sector contracted by 26.6 percent from a year ago, worse than the previous quarter's shrinkage of 21.3 percent as the global downturn hurt demand for exports such as computer chips and pharmaceuticals.
Services, another pillar of the economy, shrank by 10.3 percent as tourism-related arrivals tumbled, but the decline was less than the 15.0 percent fall in the previous quarter.
The ministry, however, still painted a more optimistic outlook for the year, compared with its assessment last month, saying that apart from the swine flu outbreak there were no new major risks to a global economic rebound.
“While trade is still expected to be weak for the rest of 2009, further declines of the magnitude seen earlier this year seem unlikely,” said the ministry./.