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SINGAPORE'S December manufacturing output unexpectedly fell a seasonally adjusted 4.7 per cent from November, government data showed on Friday.
Six economists had forecast that output would rise a marginal seasonally adjusted 0.3 per cent in December from November as drugs production could offset persistently weak electronics.
The monthly manufacturing data follows a revised rise of 6.4 per cent in November from 5.8 per cent, and a 1.5 per cent fall in October.
For the whole of 2007 growth in the manufacturing sector halved to 5.8 per cent from 11.5 per cent in 2006.
From a year earlier, factory output in December fell 1.7 per cent, the Economic Development Board said in a statement, compared with a market forecast for a 2.3 per cent rise.
Manufacturing accounts for about a quarter of Singapore's trade-dependent economy.
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