Excluding, biomedical manufacturing, which tends to be a more volatile segment and one that is relatively insulated from broader trends affecting other segments, output fell 13%.
No thanks to a drop in the electronics sector, Singapore's manufacturing output for May dropped by 10.8% y-o-y - the eights straight month of decline. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basic, output was down 3.9% - signalling how the slide in this key economic activity, which is heavily reliant on external demand, is still on a downtrend and has yet to bottom.
"We reiterate our view that there is a substantial risk for Singapore to enter a technical recession in 1H 2023, largely driven by the weakness in manufacturing," says UOB's senior economist Alvin Liew, who expects full year manufacturing output to drop by 5.4% over 2022.
