Singapore economy grows 4.4%

Singapore's economy is estimated to be growing at 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said its flash estimates released on Thursday. It is slower than the 5.9 percent year-on-year growth in the third quarter. The full-year growth for 2013 is estimated to be 3.7 percent, a number that has been revealed earlier by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his new year message. The official forecast of the government at the beginning of the year was 1 to 3 percent. It was later revised to 2.5-3.5 percent following a stronger-than-expected growth in the second quarter thanks to the strength of the manufacturing sector. It was further revised to 3.5-4 percent later. Lee said the Singapore economy is expected to grow by 2-4 percent in 2014. The manufacturing sector in the fourth quarter expanded by 3.5 percent year on year, compared with a growth of 5.3 percent in the third quarter. The slower growth was due to a contraction in biomedical manufacturing output and slower pace of growth in transport engineering output. The construction sector grew 4.7 percent year on year in the fourth quarter, down from 5.8 percent growth in the preceding quarter. The services producing industries grew 5.5 percent, down from 6. 5 percent growth in the previous quarter. Economists said Singapore is likely to get a boost from rebounding developed economies such as the United States and Europe, but that domestic factors such as the tight labor market and rising business costs could dampen growth.