Singapore’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in over a decade in 2021, a rebound from the city-state’s worst-ever recession led in large part by a manufacturing sector that fired on all cylinders to meet soaring global demand for electronics products as well as semiconductors.
The city-state’s economy expanded 7.2% last year, a robust bounce from a pandemic-induced 5.4% contraction in 2020. Singapore’s manufacturing sector expanded 12.8% compared to 7.3% the previous year, while exports rose 24.2% in November, the largest gain in nearly a decade. Exports are estimated to have grown by 10% year on year in 2021.
Electronics output alone grew 16.5% in the first 11 months of last year compared to the same period in 2020. Yet while the island nation’s broad economic recovery seems poised to continue in 2022, economists say its manufacturing-led momentum may have already peaked amid incipient signs and warnings of a slowdown.
In particular, cost pressures from rising input prices and skyrocketing freight costs are intensifying for electronics manufacturers. More significantly, perhaps, the specter of a potential slowdown in demand from China – Singapore’s largest trading partner – caused by Beijing’s “zero-Covid” policy is clouding the trade-reliant city-state’s outlook.
The city-state’s economy expanded 7.2% last year, a robust bounce from a pandemic-induced 5.4% contraction in 2020. Singapore’s manufacturing sector expanded 12.8% compared to 7.3% the previous year, while exports rose 24.2% in November, the largest gain in nearly a decade. Exports are estimated to have grown by 10% year on year in 2021.
Electronics output alone grew 16.5% in the first 11 months of last year compared to the same period in 2020. Yet while the island nation’s broad economic recovery seems poised to continue in 2022, economists say its manufacturing-led momentum may have already peaked amid incipient signs and warnings of a slowdown.
In particular, cost pressures from rising input prices and skyrocketing freight costs are intensifying for electronics manufacturers. More significantly, perhaps, the specter of a potential slowdown in demand from China – Singapore’s largest trading partner – caused by Beijing’s “zero-Covid” policy is clouding the trade-reliant city-state’s outlook.
Read the full story at Asia Times.
Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.
