SINGAPORE: The Singapore economy continued to grow at a healthy pace in the first quarter of 2011.
Releasing its flash estimates, the Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) said the economy expanded by 8.5 per cent compared to the first quarter of last year.
On a quarterly basis, the economy grew by 23.5 per cent.
This is a strong improvement from the 3.9 per cent growth in the previous quarter.
Growth was led by the manufacturing sector, which expanded by 13.9 per cent on year.
MTI said this strong growth was driven by the electronics and precision engineering clusters, which benefited from a pick-up in business investment in the region
The construction sector grew by 2.6 per cent, reversing the contraction of 2.0 per cent in the previous quarter.
MTI said this mainly reflected an increase in building activities in the residential segment.
The services producing industries also saw an increase in activities in the first quarter of 2011.
Compared to a year ago, the services producing industries expanded by 7.2 per cent.
Growth was driven by the financial services sector, which saw an increase in commercial bank lending activities.
Trade-related services such as the wholesale and retail trade, and transport and storage sectors also expanded, in line with continued growth in global demand.
MTI said it will release the preliminary GDP estimates for the first quarter in May 2011, including performance by sectors, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity in its Economic Survey of Singapore.
