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SINGAPORE – Singapore’s economy is expected to contract by 7. 6% in the third quarter compared to the previous year, and the coronavirus pandemic remains the main economic threat, according to a central bank survey of economists and analysts.
This would be the third consecutive quarter of year-on-year contraction in southeast Asia’s economy, but it will remain an improvement over the 13. 2% drop this quarter from the previous year, the worst quarterly contraction in the country, according to the knowledge of the Singapore Department of Statistics.
The quarterly survey sent last month to 28 economists and analysts who are closely following the country’s economy. The Monetary Authority of Singapore obtained responses from 26 of them.
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Here are respondents’ forecasts for third-quarter sectors:
By the whole year, respondents expect Singapore’s gross domestic product to decline by 6%, MAS said. This is in line with the government’s forecast of a contraction of between 5% and 7%.
Singapore, one of the first open-air countries in China to be affected by the virus. On Sunday, the country showed more than 57,000 accumulated infections, more than 90% of them involving migrant staff living in cramped dormitories, according to data from the Ministry of Fitness.
More than 56,000 of the total cases have recovered, while 27 have died, the fitness ministry said.
The Singapore government imposed a partial lockdown, which it called a “circuit breaker,” to engage the virus in April.
Today, the maximum of these measures has been lifted and the maximum of all economic activity has resumed. The government has also allocated about $100 billion ($73. 26 billion) from Singapore for stimulus measures for businesses and families to triumph over the pandemic crisis.
Economists in the MAS survey expect Singapore’s economy to continue to recover and expect the economy to grow by 5. 5 percent next year, depending on the results.
But about 90% of respondents cited the worsening coronavirus pandemic as the biggest threat to Singapore’s economic outlook, according to the survey. Economists were also involved in tensions between the United States and China and the slower-than-expected global economic recovery, according to the results.
On the other hand, the containment of coronavirus disease – or Covid-19 – due “for example to the successful global deployment of a vaccine” is the most cited thing that would lead Singapore’s economy to perform more than expected, DSS said.
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