Singapore's economy posts strong 7.8 percent growth

Singapore's economy posts strong 7.8 percent growth

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's economy expanded strongly by 7.8
percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 1997 amid a
recovery in the manufacturing sector, Prime Minister Goh Chok
Tong said yesterday.

"Manufacturing is recovering from the slowdown. All other
sectors did well," Goh said in a message to mark Singapore's 32
years of independence on Saturday.

He said the government was revising upwards its full-year
growth forecast to between six and seven percent.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry had earlier forecast that
1997 growth would be between five and seven percent.

Due to a global electronics slowdown, Singapore's economic
growth shrank to seven percent last year from 8.8 percent in
1995 and more than 10 percent in the previous two years.

Electronics is the lynchpin of the city state's manufacturing
sector. It accounts for half of the manufacturing output of
Singapore, the world's largest producer of computer disk drives
and sound cards.

The economy had grown by a sluggish 3.8 percent in the first
half of 1997 when the key manufacturing sector posted its biggest
decline in 12 years due to sluggish electronics demand.

Goh said with the good second quarter result, Singapore's
trade-driven economy had expanded by 5.9 percent in the first
half of 1997.

Singapore also attracted S$4.8 billion (US$3.42 billion) of
manufacturing investments in the first half of this year, he
said.

Goh, 56, who led the People's Action Party to a sweeping
victory in January 2 polls, urged his people to work with the
government to make Singapore a world-class city "offering a high
quality of life, interesting and exciting yet peaceful and safe.

"Every Singaporean has a part in building this best home. I
invite every citizen to work with me and my team to shape our
common future," he said.

Goh stressed the need for upgrading skills to reap
opportunities arising from globalization and technology.

Thirty-two years after gaining independence from Malaysia,
Singapore has transformed itself from a tropical backwater to a
bustling financial capital and nerve center for multinational
corporations.

Singapore's per capita income has overtaken those of
industrial giants Germany and the United States, exceeding 30,000
US dollars for the first time last year. Singapore is ranked the
world's most competitive country.