Singapore Q2 GDP growth seen hit by weak global demand, production

Singapore's economic growth is expected to have slowed down in the second quarter as sluggish global demand hurt the city-state's manufacturing sector, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product is forecast to have expanded 0.8 per cent in April-June from the previous quarter on an annualised and seasonally adjusted basis, according to the median forecast in the survey of 11 economists.

That would be well behind the 3.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter rate clocked in the first three months of the year.

The government is forecasting the trade-reliant economy to grow 2-4 per cent for 2015.

Singapore's industrial production in April and May fell more than expected from a year earlier.

Local manufacturing activity expanded in May and June, but new export orders index in April-June period stayed in contraction territory, according to a survey by the Singapore Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management.

The economy is expected to have expanded 2.4 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, slower than a 2.6 per cent rise in the previous three months, the poll showed.

A quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released in June showed that economists expect the economy to expand by 2.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the April-June quarter. In the previous central bank survey, their forecast was 2.9 per cent.

The advance estimate of Singapore's second-quarter GDP will be released on July 14, at 8 am local time.