Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has revised the country’s Q1 GDP growth to 3.9% year-on-year, up from the initial estimate of 3.8%.
This revision defies expectations of a downgrade to 3.6%, with the services and construction sectors leading the positive surprise. The services sector saw growth revised to 3.6% from 3.4%, bolstered by information and communication, finance and insurance, and professional services. Meanwhile, construction growth was adjusted to 5.5% from 4.6%, primarily due to residential building activities.
The resilience of domestically-oriented sectors, including construction, retail trade, and real estate, contributed to this upward revision, showing an improvement for the third consecutive quarter. Despite global trade uncertainties, these sectors have demonstrated robustness, with growth rising to 3.0% from 2.5% in the previous quarter.
On the demand side, private consumption improved to 3.4% from 2.2%, aligning with the growth in domestically-oriented sectors. However, public consumption saw a decline, impacting the overall domestic demand contribution to GDP growth, which moderated to 1.3 percentage points from 3.3 in Q4 2024.
Nomura maintains its 2025 GDP growth forecast for Singapore at 2.0%, above the consensus of 1.6%, and anticipates fiscal support measures post-elections to further bolster the economy. The likelihood of a technical recession in Q2 remains low, with strong export growth in April expected to support near-term economic activity.
“`
