As exports from the recession-hit economy suffer during a global slowdown, Singapore's manufacturing output fell 7.5% in November. Singapore's manufacturing sector accounts for nearly a quarter of economic output.
Gains in pharmaceutical production could not outweigh falls in most other categories, the preliminary data from Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) showed. Pharmaceutical output grew 17.5% in November, the EDB said. Medical technology, the other component of biomedical manufacturing, dropped by 15.4% but overall biomedical output rose 14.9%.
Consumer electronics and information-communications output fell by 58.2% while semiconductors dropped 17.6%, helping to drag total output in the electronics sector down by 19.4% last month.
The chemical sector fell by 20.1% in November, on lower petrochemical and petroleum output, while precision engineering output fell by 19.1% and general manufacturing -- which includes printing -- declined by 1.7%.
An increase in ship repairs and aerospace output boosted the transport engineering sector by 5.2% in November.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
