Economists upgrade Singapore 2021 GDP forecast to 6.5%

Private-sector economists polled by the Monetary Authority of Singapore expect higher growth, faster inflation in 2021.

Economists and analysts from the private sector expect the Singapore economy to grow by 6.8% for the full year of 2021, according to the latest Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) survey of professional forecasters.

The forecast for the June survey is higher than the 5.8% forecast from the March survey.

The twenty-seven respondents expect manufacturing to grow by 8.3%, finance & insurance by 6.0%, construction by 19.3%, wholesale & retail trade by 4.4% and accommodation & food services by 6.5%.

Private consumption is expected to grow by 5.2%, lower than the 7.9% forecast from the past survey.

Non-oil domestic exports is expected to grow by 7.5% for the full year of 2021.

CPI-all items inflation and MAS Core inflation are expected to come in at 1.4% and 0.8% respectively for the full year of 2021. For the second quarter, the economists expect CPI inflation to come in at 1.9% and core inflation to come in at 0.7%.