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Economists downgrade Singapore's growth forecast

Xinhua, March 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Economists have downgraded their forecasts for Singapore's economic growth to 2.8 percent this year, from an earlier forecast of 3.1 percent, according to the quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released on Wednesday.

The survey reflects views from 21 analysts who closely monitor the Singapore economy. While the official estimate of economic growth comes in between two percent and four percent this year.

The lower expectation followed weaker figures for Singapore exports which were released on Tuesday. Non-oil domestic exports of the country fell by 9.7 percent on year in February, according to the Singapore's trade promotion agency International Enterprises (IE) Singapore.

Key reasons for the contraction in exports include a slowdown in China's economic growth and lackluster growth elsewhere in the world.

Economists surveyed expect two percent growth for Q1 ending March 31, which is a decrease from the earlier estimate of 2.5 percent.

Respondents of the MAS survey forecast the inflation for this year could come to just 0.1 percent, significantly lower than the earlier estimate of 1.1 percent.

MAS now expects inflation to come in between negative 0.5 percent and 0.5 percent this year, much lower than the earlier estimates of 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent. Endi