Singapore output expands 4.7%

Singapore\'s industrial production in April expanded at a stronger-than-expected rate of 4.7 percent on year, mainly due to a surge in pharmaceutical output, the city- state\'s Economic Development Board (EDB) said Thursday. The expansion reversed the re-stated 3.8 percent contraction in March, following the huge decrease of 16.3 percent in February. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output fell 2.7 percent on year in April. In particular, biomedical manufacturing cluster\'s output saw double-digit growth of 44.7 percent year on year. The pharmaceuticals segment expanded 48.0 percent \"mainly due to a different mix of active pharmaceutical ingredients being produced\", while the medical technology segment increased 31.1 percent \"on the back of higher production capacities\". The general manufacturing cluster\'s output slightly expanded by 3.7 percent in April, while the electronics cluster\'s output rose 1.1 percent on year. The chemicals cluster\'s output declined 1.2 percent in April, compared to a year ago. On the contrary, output of the transport engineering cluster and precision engineering cluster both saw relatively larger declines of 8.4 percent and 9.8 percent on year respectively in April. The government also revised the economy growth rate of 0.2 percent on year in first quarter Thursday, expecting the economy performance to improve gradually over the course of the year.