Singapore factory output falls 9.2% in March

Drop is biggest in 7 months and far sharper than analysts’ forecast

- Claire Huang

Singapore's factory output fell 9.2 per cent year on year in March, reversing from the previous two months' gains and performing worse than analysts expected.

The drop is the biggest in seven months and far sharper than the 1.5 per cent decline forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg poll.

Excluding the more volatile biomedical industry, production dropped 5.9 per cent, data released by the Economic Development Board (EDB) on April 26 showed.

On a seasonally adjusted monthon-month basis, factory output fell 16 per cent in March. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output dropped 8.7 per cent.

DBS Bank economist Chua Han Teng said the March data meant that in the first quarter of 2024, manufacturing output contracted by 1.8 per cent year on year, compared with 1.8 per cent year-onyear growth in the fourth quarter of 2023.