Singapore's industrial production declined for the fifth straight month in February, largely due to a slump in bio-medical manufacturing and chemical output, according to data from the Economic Development Board revealed on Friday.
Industrial production fell 8.9 percent year-on-year in February, which was worse than the 3.1 percent fall in January. Economists had expected a decrease of 1.9 percent.
Excluding bio-medical manufacturing, industrial production slid 4.9 percent annually in February, after a 7.1 percent fall in the previous month.
On a monthly basis, industrial production declined sharply by 11.7 percent in February, much faster than the 0.4 percent drop in the prior month.
Among major clusters, production in the bio-medical manufacturing industries fell the most, by 33.6 percent annually in February amid a marked decline in output of the pharmaceuticals segment.
The chemical cluster logged a contraction in output of 14.9 percent, as output of the specialties segment dipped 8.0 percent due to lower production of mineral oil and food additives.
There was a 10.0 percent fall in electronics output in February compared to last year.
At the same time, the transport engineering cluster surged 22.9 percent, and that of precision engineering rose 4.9 percent.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
