Singapore’s factory output up 0.2% in Oct: EDB

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s manufacturing output inched up slightly in October, reversing the contraction seen in the previous month, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said today (Nov 26).

Factories here produced 0.2 per cent more output last month compared to the corresponding period last year, helped by strong growth in biomedical output, EDB said. This is an improvement from the revised 1 per cent fall in industrial output in September.

However, excluding biomedical manufacturing, output declined 4.3 per cent from a year ago.

On a month-on-month, seasonally-adjusted basis, output increased by 2.6 per cent. Excluding biomedical, production fell 3.4 per cent.

Biomedical output rose 22.5 per cent year-on-year in October, with the pharmaceutical segment surging 24.3 per cent due to higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biologics products.

The chemicals and precision engineering clusters also registered increases of 2.3 and 1.3 per cent, respectively.

The key electronics segment, which accounts for about one-third of Singapore’s industrial production, clocked a 6.1 per cent on-year fall in output last month. The cluster’s performance was dragged down a 31.1 per cent fall in computer peripherals output, partly due to a high base last year when export demand for these products was especially strong.