Singapore’s manufacturing output fell at a sharper than expected pace last month, pulled mainly by a deep contraction in the key electronics industry, official data released yesterday showed.
The Economic Development Board (EDB) said industrial production sank 9.3 percent year on year, worse than the average 6.4 percent tipped by a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven economists.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output was down 9.2 percent, the EDB said in its monthly report.
Electronics output was down an annual 20.4 percent, chemicals dropped 8.9 percent, precision engineering sank 18.1 percent and transport engineering contracted 12.4 percent, the EDB said.
The slump was also partially blamed on slower growth in the biomedical sector where production was just 11.6 percent higher compared with 120.8 percent in May.
The city-state’s manufacturing sector, the backbone of its trade-led economy, has been hit by the global slump as consumers around the world cut back on spending.
Last week, the Singaporean government narrowed its growth outlook for this year to a contraction of 4 percent to 6 percent from minus a previously forecast 6 percent to 9 percent.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
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One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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