Singapore's growth hits 4%

Singapore's economy expanded by 4.1 per cent in 2013, an improvement on the 1.9 per cent the previous year, dpa cited the government as saying Thursday. The manufacturing sector grew by 1.7 per cent, up from 0.3 per cent in 2012, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a press release. This was mostly accounted for by good performances in the transport engineering and electronics clusters. The services sector expanded by 5.3 per cent, up from 2 per cent in 2012. This came mainly from the growth in financial services and wholesale and retail trade. The construction sector grew 5.9 per cent, down from 8.6 per cent in 2012. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said this was due to a slowdown in both public and private building activity. The ministry has predicted that 2014 will be a year of modest growth, with the overall forecast maintained at 2 to 4 per cent.