According to DBS, the economy expanded by 5.5% YoY in the fourth quarter, exactly in line with its above consensus forecast (Consensus: 5.2%).
Here’s more:
In sequential terms, the economy surged by 6.1% QoQ saar. Overall, the economy grew by 4.1% in 2013. A surgeA transient variation in the current and/or potential at a point in the circuit. in the industrial production in December is the main reason for this upward revision. This brought manufacturing growth to 7.0% YoY, up from the 3.5% projected in the advance estimates.
That’s a doubling of the manufactur- ing growth number, which henceforth led to the drastic revision in the headline GDP growth figures. The outperformance was mainly driven by simultaneous spikes in output from the biomedical and electronics clusters.
Growth in the construction sectors eased to 4.8% YoY, 6.6% previously. Margin compression due to high labour costs probably has affected performance in this sector despite a healthy pipeline of projects. Key services sector also put up a healthy showing although growth has moder- ated slightly. It recorded growth of 5.9% YoY in the quarter, as compared to 6.3% in 3Q13.