Singapore maintains 2025 growth forecast at 0-2%

(CNA); Singapore has maintained its growth forecast for the year at a range of 0 to 2 per cent, even as data on Thursday (May 22) showed the economy grew slightly faster than expected in the first quarter of 2025.

While the external demand outlook for the rest of the year has “improved slightly” following recent tariff talks, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) sounded caution about an uncertain environment ahead.

“Given the heightened uncertainty, MTI will continue to monitor developments closely and make adjustments to the forecast as necessary in the coming quarters,” said MTI’s Permanent Secretary Beh Swan Gin at a press conference.

The Singapore economy grew by 3.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, just above the government’s advance estimates of 3.8 per cent. Still, this is a slowdown from a 5 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2024.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the Singapore economy contracted by 0.6 per cent, better than the prediction of a 0.8 per cent contraction, but reversing from a 0.5 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

In its press release, MTI said first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth was largely driven by the wholesale trade, manufacturing, as well as finance and insurance sectors.

In particular, growth in the manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors was likely to have been partly supported by front-loading activities ahead of anticipated tariff hikes by the United States.

Source: CNA