Singapore's sluggish economy is expected to pick up pace in the second-half of the year as exports improve despite high oil prices, meaning the official growth target of 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent is still within reach, economists said.
There were concerns the Southeast Asian economic powerhouse would slip into its second recession in five years after GDP shrank 5.5 percent on a quarterly basis in the first three months.
It was the first such decline since the second quarter of 2003 and fears of a second straight quarter of negative growth, the technical definition for a recession, were further raised with poor export figures in April and May.
On an annual basis, GDP growth in the first quarter came in at an annual 2.5 percent, its weakest performance since the third quarter of 2003.
However economists believe the worst could be over amid signs key global industries that Singapore's exports feed, particularly electronics, are picking up.
"We're optimistic ... there are little indicators here and there suggesting a recovery," said Chua Hak Bin, a senior regional economist at Singapore's DBS Bank.
Chua emphasized there had been a steady drop in US electronics inventories since the start of the year, while projections of global chip sales have been revised upwards to around 6.0 percent for this year from flat growth or contraction.
"We think the second quarter will bottom out ... US inventory is coming down slowly," said Chua who is sticking by his forecast that Singapore's GDP will grow 4.2 percent this year from 8.4 percent last year.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS