Singapore's manufacturing output accelerates in March

Singapore's manufacturing output in March grew by 22 percent year on year thanks to strong biomedical output, the Economic Development Board said on Tuesday.


The growth followed a lower-than-expected 4.8 percent in February. The board said the growth in March would be 6.1 percent with the biomedical cluster excluded. The biomedical output surged by 57 percent year on year, led by the pharmaceutical segment.


The increase is partly because activity has picked up in Asia, supporting the manufacturing activity of Singapore, local broadcaster Channel NewsAsia quoted analysts as saying.


The purchasing managers' index numbers in the region for March was not bad and there are other indications pointing to a pickup in manufacturing momentum last month, OCBC Bank economist Selena Ling said.


Output of the precision manufacturing cluster expanded by 8.6 percent, while the electronics cluster grew 6.9 percent.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)