Singapore's industrial production declined for the eighth straight month in September at a faster-than-expected pace, figures from the Economic Development Board showed Monday.
Industrial production fell 4.8 percent year-over-year in September, exceeding economists' expectations for a 4.5 percent drop. However, which was slower than the 7.1 percent decrease in August.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output dipped 10.2 percent in September from a year ago.
Among components, output of the transport engineering cluster plunged 24.0 percent annually in September and the electronics cluster's output contracted by 8.6 percent.
Output of the precision engineering cluster slipped 8.7 percent in September and those of general manufacturing industries cluster dropped by 4.7 percent.
At the same time, output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 26.3 percent in September, with both the pharmaceuticals and medical technology segment recording output growth. Similarly, the chemicals cluster output climbed 4.4 percent during the month.
On a monthly basis, industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in September, in contrast to a 3.7 percent decrease in August. Economists had forecast 1.3 percent gain for the month. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output inched up 0.3 percent.
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