SINGAPORE'S August manufacturing output increased by 13.8 per cent over the same month last year.

The Economic Development Board said on Wednesday the biomedical manufacturing and transport engineering clusters led the growth.

The biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 49.4 per cent with the production of higher value added active pharmaceutical ingredients pushing up the segment's growth to 52.6 per cent.

Strong export demand boosted medical technology segment's growth to 28.6 per cent.

Output of the transport engineering cluster rose 19.5 per cent. The marine and offshore and land segments were the main contributors.

Five out of six industry clusters showed expansion.

On a month to month basis, output fell a worse-than-expected seasonally adjusted 13.7 per cent.

Five economists had forecast output would drop a seasonally adjusted 11.0 per cent in August from July due to slower drugs production.

The monthly manufacturing data follows a 26.3 per cent rise in July, revised up from 25.5 per cent, and a 9.6 per cent fall in June.

Manufacturing accounts for about a quarter of Singapore's trade-dependent economy.

For the first eight months of this year, a cumulative 9.3 per cent growth was achieved by manufacturers compared to what was produced in the same period last year.