Singapore´s GDP shrinks rapidly in the third quarter

Singapore´s economy shrank rapidly and unexpectedly in the third quarter, stoking worries about growth in the Asia Pacific region.

The city state´s gross domestic product fell at a quarterly annualised pace of 4.1%, a far worse outcome than the flat reading which economists had penclined in.

That brought the year-on-year rate of growth to just 0.6% (consensus: 1.7%) after an expansion of 2.0% in the second quarter.

Factory production in Singapore plummeted at a quarterly annualised pace of 17.4% in the third quarter, while services output dropped 1.9%.

“Growth in the Singapore economy weakened and is not expected to pick up significantly in 2017,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement.

Full-year 2016 GDP growth would be nearer to the lower-end of the its projected range of between 1.0% and 2.0% and only slightly higher in 2017, the MAS added.