Economists cut GDP growth forecast to 1.4%

Weak finance sector and private consumption sentiment dragged overall outlook.

Economists and analysts have, once again, trimmed their economic growth forecast for Singapore to 1.4%, after the September's GDP growth prediction at 1.8%.

According to Monetary Authority of Singapore's lastest survey of professional forecasters, this may be due to slightly downgraded outlook on finance & insurance, construction, wholesale & retail trade, and private consumption.

Finance & Insurance sector is expected to grow at a slow pace of 0.5%, ompared to 2.0% growth in the previous survey. Construction is slated to grow 2.3%, in contrast to the previous forecast of 3% growth.

The survey said for 2017, the respondents expect GDP growth to reach 1.5% for the year as a whole, while CPI-All Items and MAS Core Inflation are forecast to come in at 1.0% and 1.3% respectively.

"As reflected by the mean probability distribution, the most likely outcome is for the Singapore economy to grow by 1.0 to 1.9% next year, unchanged from the last survey," MAS said.