Daily Briefing: Singapore GDP beats expectations; Noble blames coal price collapse

And here’s the deal on Singapore’s property market.

Singapore’s economy grew more than initially estimated last quarter as a gain in services outweighed weaker manufacturing and exports. Gross domestic product rose an annualized 6.2 percent in the three months through December from the previous quarter, when it expanded a revised 2.3 percent, the trade ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Read more here.

Noble Group Ltd. blamed the tumble in coal prices for an additional $1.2 billion in charges that will force the embattled commodities trader to post its first full-year loss in almost two decades. The company said most of the impairments are due to coal, warning that prices may remain at lower levels for an extended period of time, according to a statement Tuesday. Coal is a pillar of the Hong Kong-based trader’s energy unit, which accounted for 85 percent of revenue in 2014. Find out more here.

In the past couple of weeks, there had been a few articles talking about the bad state of the residential property market in Singapore. DTZ reported that there were a total of 87 units put up for auction by banks last year due to the inability of their owners to service the home loan. This represents an increase of 40 units from 2014, where 47 units were put up for auction in similar circumstances. Read more here.

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