Mar 11, 2010
By Fiona Chan
By Fiona Chan
ECONOMISTS have raised their forecasts for Singapore's growth this year, and now expect a bigger jump in manufacturing and exports than earlier predicted.
A survey of private sector economists released yesterday showed that they see the economy growing by 6.5 per cent this year, up from the 5.5 per cent median forecast they gave three months ago.
Their latest prediction is at the top end of the Government's own forecast range of 4.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent growth for this year, which was upgraded last month.
For the first quarter of this year, private sector economists expect the economy to expand by 9.5 per cent, slightly down from their previous tip of 9.6 per cent in December, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) latest Survey of Professional Forecasters.
But the actual figure could be even higher than 10 per cent, if the massive jump in January's manufacturing output translates into a boost in exports, said Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng.
Factories produced 39.4 per cent more in January than in the same month last year, the biggest jump in output in 26 years.
