Latest news with #technicalrecession
South China Morning Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Singapore warns of technical recession risk from US tariff tensions
Singapore flagged the risk of a technical recession due to global tariff tensions even after its economy kick-started 2025 on a faster-than-expected note. Gross domestic product grew 3.9 per cent in the three months through March from a year earlier, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in its final estimate on Thursday. The figure compares with a median forecast of a 3.6 per cent growth in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and the government's advanced estimate of 3.8 per cent. On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, GDP fell 0.6 per cent, versus a forecast of 1 per cent contraction. The MTI maintained a recently downgraded forecast for 2025 GDP growth at 0 per cent-2 per cent as US tariffs clouded the outlook for global trade. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong earlier warned that a recession cannot be ruled out. 'A technical recession where you have two quarters of consecutive quarter-to-quarter negative growth, that is a possibility,' Beh Swan Gin, permanent secretary at the trade ministry, told reporters. 'However, that doesn't necessarily equate to a full-blown economic recession' as seen in the year on year GDP numbers. First quarter's better-than-expected result was driven by manufacturing and export activity as businesses rushed to avoid the imposition of higher US tariffs. The data shows how the US-China trade war and China's sluggish recovery were seeping deeper into the region at the start of the year. Since then, the world's two biggest economies have called a truce, agreeing to a 90-day negotiating window under which they have lowered tariffs on each other's goods.
Reuters
22-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Singapore could enter technical recession, trade ministry official says
SINGAPORE, May 22 (Reuters) - Singapore could enter a technical recession, marked by two quarters of contraction, but the economy may not necessarily suffer a full-blown recession, Beh Swan Gin, Permanent Secretary at the Trade Ministry, said on Thursday after the release of GDP data. Edward Robinson, Deputy Managing Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said current policy settings remained appropriate. The MAS eased policy at reviews in January and April.
