Manufacturing output for May fell by 2.3%

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s manufacturing sector contracted for the fourth straight month in May, down by 2.3 per cent year-on-year, data from the Economic Development Board showed today (June 26).

The decline was worse than the 2.1 per cent fall economists in a Reuters poll had expected.

Output from five out of six clusters – electronics, biomedical manufacturing, precision engineering, transport engineering and general manufacturing products - fell, with the sole exception being the chemicals cluster, where output rose in the petroleum and specialties segments.

The key electronics cluster which carries the largest weight in the industrial production index, fell by 0.2 per cent on-year, with declines in semiconductors as well as the infocomms and consumer electronics segment.