Singapore's manufacturing output grew at its slowest pace in eight months due to a plunge in biomedical manufacturing in July.
Manufacturing output climbed a more than expected 9.9% year-on-year in July, but down sharply from a revised 29.5% rise seen in June, a report from the Economic Development Board showed Thursday. Consensus forecast was for a 9.3% increase. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 20.2%.
Biomedical manufacturing dipped 11.2% compared to a 30.3% increase in June. The pharmaceuticals segment output declined 10.8%, primarily due to a different mix of active pharmaceutical ingredients produced.
Further pulling down the overall output growth rate, electronic cluster recorded only 24.5% increase after the prior month's 52.8% growth. Output of the general manufacturing cluster increased 13.3% year-on-year, faster than 11.9% in the previous month.
Meanwhile, output of the precision engineering cluster expanded at a faster pace of 50.9%, following a 45.3% rise in June. The strong performance was boosted by the machinery and systems segment which saw output surging by 94.2% in July.
As gains in the land transport and aerospace segments more than offset the decline in the marine and offshore segment, transport engineering cluster showed a 0.8% annual growth in production after decreasing 3.9% last month. Output growth of chemical clusters stagnated at 7.7% in July.
Month-on-month, manufacturing output rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.4% in July, reversing last month's revised 22% fall. However, July's growth figure was smaller than the expected 4.1% increase. Output remained unchanged in July after excluding biomedical manufacturing.
On a three-month moving average basis, manufacturing output in July advanced 31.3% compared to the same period last year. This was notably smaller than the 46.1% expansion seen in June. For the first seven months of 2010, manufacturing output expanded 36.6%.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore suggested a moderate growth in the latter part of the year after growing strongly in the first half. In its annual report, the central bank said the city-state economy is expected to expand by 13% to 15%.
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