Economists cut Singapore growth expectations for 2016 & 2017

Dec 14, 2016 (LBO) – Economists are expecting a slower than expected growth for this year as falling global trade hinders country’s export growth, Singapore’s central bank survey showed.



22 economists polled by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) expect the GDP growth to come in at 1.4 percent in 2016, a decline from the 1.8 percent median forecast in the previous survey.

For 2017, the respondents expect GDP growth to reach 1.





5 percent for the year as a whole, which is lower than the previous estimate of 1.

8 percent. CPI-All Items and MAS Core Inflation are forecast to come in at 1.0 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. As reflected by the mean probability distribution, the most likely outcome is for the Singapore economy to grow by 1.

0 to 1.9 percent next year, Monetary Authority of Singapore said.





The median CPI-All Items inflation forecast for 2016 remains unchanged from the September survey, at −0.5 percent. The respondents further expect MAS Core Inflation to be 0.9 percent in 2016, down from 1.0 percent in the previous survey.

As for the labour market, the respondents expect the unemployment rate to be 2.1 percent by year-end. Full survey results below. survey-writeup-dec2016-web