Despite MTI’s downbeat assessment on Singapore’s GDP outlook, particularly in external demand, analysts like RHB Group Research’s senior economist Barnabas Gan are keeping their earlier GDP growth projections. Citing a recovery in 2H2023, he still expects Singapore to see a growth rate of 2.0% for the full-year.
Analysts are mostly keeping to their earlier projections of Singapore’s 2023 GDP after the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) narrowed its full-year GDP growth projection range to 0.5% to 1.5%, down from its previous estimate of 0.5% to 2.5%.
The possibility of a lowered projection had been flagged by MTI on Aug 11 when it announced that GDP for 2Q2023 was up by an 0.5% y-o-y — an unexpected revision from its preliminary estimate of a 0.7% y-o-y increase but still inching above the 0.4% growth eked out in the first quarter of the year.
