Singapore has maintained its growth forecast for this year at 3 to 5 per cent for the year 2022 as data on Thursday showed the economy staging a recovery in 2021.
A statement by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said that the Singapore economy expanded 7.6 per cent last year, mainly lifted by the manufacturing, finance and insurance, and wholesale trade sectors
MTI also revised the gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the pandemic-hit 2020 to a decline of 4.1 per cent, up from an earlier contraction estimate of 5.4 per cent
It said that the upward revision was due to better performances in sectors such as wholesale trade, transportation and storage, information and communications, and finance and insurance, said MTI’s economics division director Yong Yik Wei.
“The preliminary estimates are based on available data at the point in time,” she told reporters. “As more comprehensive data become available over the course of the year through the annual survey results, the estimates are updated.”
Moving forward, MTI said the economy will continue to grow, albeit unevenly, in 2022.
It noted that the outlook for Singapore’s external demand has “deteriorated slightly” since its last report in November, as many economies tightened restrictions to combat the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
