Singapore’s economy will continue to recover next year as global growth is projected to “remain positive,” S. Iswaran, minister-in-charge of trade relations at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said Monday in parliament, adding that the ministry plans to release its 2022 outlook in November.
The Southeast Asian city-state is sticking to its plan to cautiously reopen more sectors of its economy and live with the coronavirus as its case count surges, relying on one of the world’s highest vaccination rates to keep hospitalizations low. Looser restrictions will help consumer-facing industries and ease labour shortages, Iswaran said.
After a better-than-expected first half of 2021, driven partly by strong manufacturing and finance sector output, the second half of this year should see “outward-oriented sectors” remain healthy barring a major setback for the global economy, Iswaran said.
Singapore in August revised its growth forecast for this year to a range of 6%-7% -- from an earlier outlook of 4%-6% -- on expectations of revived global demand, as well as relaxing of domestic and border restrictions as its vaccination rate climbed.
The economy is expected to grow 6.5% this year and 4.1% in 2022, according to the median results of Bloomberg survey this month.
