Singapore’s economy grew by 6.0% year-on-year in Q1 2026, surpassing the flash estimate of 4.6% and accelerating from the 5.0% expansion recorded in Q4 2025. This marked the fastest annual growth since Q3 2024.
The upturn was underpinned by resilient manufacturing activity, which expanded by 7.9% (vs 8.7% in Q4), supported by gains in the electronics, precision engineering, transport engineering, and general manufacturing clusters, even as the biomedical manufacturing and chemicals clusters contracted.
Construction output also strengthened markedly, rising 11.8% (vs 5.2% in Q4), buoyed by higher activity in both the public and private sectors. In addition, the services sector accelerated, recording growth of 5.7% (vs 4.3% in Q4), driven by robust performance in wholesale and retail trade, accommodation, and finance & insurance.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP expanded by 1.0%, reversing the advance estimate of a 0.3% contraction and marking a second consecutive quarter of growth. However, this sequential increase was significantly slower than the 5.0% gain in Q4, reflecting the adverse impact of the war in the Middle East.
