Factory output registers second month of decline with 1.9% slip in December

The electronics sector resumed its decline.

Singapore’s Industrial Production contracted by 1.9% year-on-year in December, beating consensus forecats of a -3.4% decline.

The headline figure is marginally above the 2.1% decline in November, which was the sharpest contraction since June 2013.

Electronics manufacturing resumed its decline with a 2.4% contraction last month, following a short reprieve in November where growth turned positive after two preceding months of contraction.

The fall in electronics output was due to weakness in the semiconductor manufacturing (-3.3% y/y), computer peripherals (-7.5% y/y), and data storage (-10.6% y/y) segments. 

Meanwhile, biomedical manufacturing output fell 1% year-on-year, driven by a 1.8% decline in pharmaceuticals output.