2017.06.2302:08:00UTC+00Singapore Industrial Production Growth Eases Unexpectedly

Singapore's industrial production growth eased unexpectedly in May, preliminary data from the Economic Development Board showed Friday.

Industrial production advanced 5.0 percent year-over-year in May, slower than the 6.7 percent rise in April. Meanwhile, economists had expected the growth to accelerate to 7.5 percent.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output expanded sharply by 13.1 percent annually in May.

Among components, the electronics cluster's output surged 35.1 percent over the year and output of the precision engineering grew by 19.1 percent.

In contrast, output of the transport engineering cluster contracted 12.8 percent and the biomedical manufacturing cluster's output plunged by 22.2 percent.

On a monthly basis, industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent from April, when it edged down by 0.1 percent. Economists had forecast a 0.7 percent decrease for the month.