Singapore's economy shrank by more than first estimated in the fourth quarter due to weakness in manufacturing, the government said yesterday as it lowered its growth forecast for this year, citing a looming US recession.
The economy contracted 4.8 percent from the third quarter on an annualized basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement, citing a sharp drop in biomedical manufacturing. The government had earlier estimated a 3.2 percent decline.
In the third quarter, economic output grew 5.1 percent from the second quarter. Overall, the economy grew 7.7 percent last year, following an 8.2 percent expansion in 2006, the ministry said.
Turning to the government's growth forecast this year, Ravi Menon, second permanent secretary of trade and industry, said this year is set to be "more challenging" than last year.
"Growth will be lower and inflation higher, which is not a good combination," Menon said at a press conference.
The government lowered its growth forecast for this year to 4-6 percent from 4.5-6.5 percent, as the trade dependent city-state prepared for a likely US recession.
The ministry's statement said that "current conditions suggest that the U.S. will likely enter a mild recession in the first half but its strong fundamentals, coupled with fiscal and monetary stimulus, will help to support recovery in the second half."
The ministry said a more severe recession in the US -- Singapore's largest trading partner -- would likely have a spillover impact on the country's "sentiment-sensitive" sectors such as electronics and financial services.
Singapore aspires to be a regional hub for wealth management and has drawn several top institutions to establish a regional center on the island.
Financial services extended their strong performance into the fourth quarter with a 16 percent on-year expansion, following the third quarter's 20 percent increase.
Also leading growth was construction, which rose 24 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, up from 20 percent a quarter earlier.
Biomedical manufacturing contracted by 28 percent due to plant maintenance shutdowns which caused a fall in pharmaceutical production.
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are