Singapore’s industrial production unexpectedly increased in May as pharmaceutical companies boosted output.
Manufacturing, which accounts for about a quarter of Singapore’s economy, rose 2 percent from a year earlier following a revised 0.4 percent gain in April, the Economic Development Board said today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists was for a drop of 3 percent.
Singapore’s government said last month the nation may have “hit the bottom” of its deepest recession since independence in 1965. The narrowing of declines in the island’s exports and production has been helped by gains in pharmaceutical shipments, an industry economists describe as “volatile.”
“The pharmaceutical industry may have gotten a boost from demand for vaccines and other drugs amid the swine flu,” said Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. “The broad picture shows that you can’t run away from the fact that electronics are still weak. I’m quite doubtful that this pace of recovery can be maintained.”
bloomberg.com
Pharmaceutical Process Equipment
