Singapore's manufacturing output down 1.9 pct in December

Singapore's manufacturing output in December contracted 1.9 percent year on year, dragged down by a decline in the transport engineering and general manufacturing sectors, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said on Monday.

Output for the transport engineering clusters dropped 6.8 percent on-year in December, the biggest decease in all sectors. The biomedical manufacturing cluster's output dropped 1 percent. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, the overall manufacturing output declined by 2.1 percent.

The chemicals cluster's output declined 2.7 percent, dragged by petrochemicals and petroleum refining segment.

The electronics cluster contracted 2.4 percent, while the general manufacturing industries cluster's output declined 4 percent, due to a drop in output from the miscellaneous industries and printing segments.

Manufacturing accounts for about one fifth of Singapore's economy. Endi