Modest recovery in factory output for September

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S factory output made a modest recovery in September with a year-on-year expansion of 0.1 per cent boosted by biomedical manufacturing, much to the surprise of economists who had largely expected a further contraction.

A poll of private economists by Bloomberg put the median contraction at 4.8 per cent; OCBC economists predicted a 2.6 per cent decline; and Barclays economists forecast a 3.3 per cent drop.

Excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing sector, however, total manufacturing output fell by 4.3 per cent, according to estimate…