Singapore’s manufacturing, electronics PMIs fall in December

Singapore’s domestic manufacturing and electronics PMIs dropped in December as expected. Manufacturing PMI fell 0.1 point to 52.8, while electronics PMI fell 0.3 point to 53.2. The indices have eased modestly from November’s prints of 52.9 and 53.5, respectively, as both indices continue to be in the expansion territory. The electronics PMI figure, in particular, continues to be close to its current cycle high of 53.5 in September 2017, which was the highest since July 2010.

Delving into details, the new orders and new export orders indices for the manufacturing rose in the December, whereas the electronics new orders and new export orders dropped in the month. Moreover, both the output and order backlog measures for the manufacturing and electronics industry also eased in the month.

The fourth quarter economic growth figures released yesterday showed that momentum in manufacturing had already weakened 11.5 percent sequentially from the third quarter, which had recorded a rise of 38 percent. This brought the full year manufacturing growth to 10.5 percent year-on-year in 2017, which is a sharp rebound from the 3.6 percent year-on-year seen in 2016. However, the outlook for manufacturing growth for this year is expected to be a more modest single digit growth of 4.9 percent year-on-year, noted Selena Ling, Head of Treasury Research & Strategy, OCBC Bank.

“Going forward, the manufacturing momentum may cool further as the regional manufacturing PMI prints are somewhat mixed”, added Selena Ling.

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