Singapore’s economy likely to achieve 3 percent growth in 2017

MAS Annual Report showed that Singapore’s economic growth has been somewhat uneven across sectors but this is to be expected in the initial stages of an external-led pickup and is expected to gradually broaden to the rest of the economy over the course of this year.

The trade-related cluster, including the manufacturing, transport and storage and wholesale services sectors, accounts for 43 percent of the country’s GDP. Those will be key drive behind the rebound in Singaporean economy since the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.

MAS expected that stronger growth in the cluster to create a knock-on effect on the other sectors of the economy.

Meanwhile, the modern service sector- financial services, business and information and communications technology (ICT) services, accounting for 30 percent of the GDP, has seen mixed outcomes over the last two quarters but is poised for higher growth in the second half of this year.

Besides, the domestic-oriented sector, comprising retail and food services and construction activities, makes up of 17 percent of the GDP. It has lackluster growth and some segments are forecast to remain weak.

MAS forecasts core inflation will average to 1-2 percent in 2017, up from 0.9 percent in 2016./.