Singapore's manufacturing output up 7.6 % on year in June

Singapore's manufacturing output in June grew 7.6 percent on year, up from last month's 6.6 percent growth in May, the country's Economic Development Board (EDB) announced on Thursday. The growth mainly due to biomedical manufacturing cluster, which surged 54.4 percent on year. Among them, the pharmaceuticals segment saw a sharp expansion of 68.7 percent compared with the same period of last year. Excluding biomedical manufacturing sector, the city-state saw an annual output decline of 1.5 percent. In particular, electronics sector suffered an output contraction of 4.5 percent because of the sharp decrease of 18.1 percent in computer peripherals segment. During the first half period, output of the sector fell 13.4 percent compared to the same period in 2011, the EDB said in a statement. The chemicals cluster fell 5.7 percent year-on-year in June with all segments recording lower output, while the precision engineering cluster also saw a decline of 3.4 percent. The city-state's transport engineering cluster, however, grew 7. 6 percent on year, mainly due to a gain of 8.1 percent in marine and offshore engineering segment. During the first six months this year, the accumulated total manufacturing output in Singapore grew 1.8 percent on year, while the figure excluding biomedical manufacturing cluster saw a decline of 2.2 percent.