Singapore could be in
recession in H2 - government
SINGAPORE, Oct 18 - Singapore could see a technical recession in
the second half of 2010 as the global economic recovery remains
subdued and planned drug plant shutdowns could hurt the
manufacturing sector, the government said on Monday.
The government also said it was closely monitoring local
property prices to ensure no bubble was formed.
The economy remains on track to achieve the growth forecast of
13-15 percent for the full 2010 year, Senior Minister of State for
Trade and Industry S Iswaran said in parliament.
"A 'technical recession' -- which analysts define as two
consecutive periods of negative quarter-on-quarter growth -- could
happen in the second half of the year," he said.
"If this happened, it would largely be a reflection of the sharp
swings in the biomedical manufacturing cluster."
In the July-September period, the economy fell 19.8 percent from
the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted annualised rate, the
largest contraction since the data was first collated in 1975. [ID:
nSGC003776]
However, continued growth in global demand for electronic
products will lend support to the electronics and precision
engineering clusters and a surge of visitor arrivals to Singapore
will continue to bolster tourism-related sectors, Iswaran said.
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan told parliament
the government was monitoring the property market closely and would
"act fast to pre-empt problems".
in August, Singapore announced restrictions on people buying
second homes as part of new measures to cool its red-hot
residential market, joining Hong Kong and China in taking steps to
keep a lid on housing prices. [ID:nSGE67T016]
Mah said the measures had dented resale transactions in
September from August , but he could not say whether the government
would need to introduce more measures in the future. (Reporting by
Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)