Unanticipatedly, Singapore's end-of-quarter industrial production experienced a decline, largely attributable to a drop in biomedical manufacturing output. This data was revealed by the Economic Development Board on Friday.
Year-on-year, industrial production diminished by 2.5 percent in December, after showing no significant change in the previous month. Contrarily, economists had forecasted a slight 1.0 percent increase for the month.
When biomedical manufacturing is excluded, December's industrial production displays a modest annual growth of 0.5 percent, following a 1.1 percent rise in the previous month.
Month-on-month, the decline of industrial production rate decelerated to 1.7 percent in December, after suffering a substantial 8.0 percent reduction in November.
Assessing the major sectors, the biomedical manufacturing segment took the hardest hit, with a notable 23.9 percent annual decrease in December. This was closely followed by general manufacturing, which experienced a 15.9 percent decrease.
Precision engineering production also declined, showing a 7.4 percent drop, while electronic output displayed growth, increasing by 6.3 percent.
