S’pore keeps 2024 srowth forecast at I%-3% as risks remain

Economy slows to 1.1% expansion in 2023; key exports tipped to grow 4%-6% this year

- Angela Tan

 

Singapore maintained its forecast for the economy to grow 1 per cent to 3 per cent in 2024, as it warned that downside risks to the global economy remain significant.

For 2023, the economy grew 1.1 per cent, slowing from the 3.8 per cent expansion in 2022, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Feb 15. The figure was below the 1.2 per cent official estimate made in January.

Growth in the final quarter of 2023 came in at 2.2 per cent year on year, down from the 2.8 per cent initially estimated.

It missed analysts' average forecast of 2.5 per cent growth, as polled by Bloomberg.

MTI said Singapore's external demand outlook for 2024 has remained largely unchanged since its last review in November.

"Growth in the advanced economies is expected to moderate in the first half of the year, mainly due to continued tight financial conditions, before recovering gradually in line with an expected easing of monetary policy as inflationary. pressures recede," said Dr Beh Swan Gin, MTI's permanent secretary for development, at a media briefing following the release of the Economic Survey of Singapore 2023.

Regional economies are expected to see a pickup in growth in the year ahead, supported in part by the turnaround in global electronics demand, he added.

However, the global economy still faces serious downside risks.