Singapore’s manufacturing sector keeps recovering – UOB

Economist at UOB Group Barnabas Gan reviewed the latest PMI prints in Singapore.

Key Quotes

“Singapore’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) as released by the Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (SIPMM) showed further increase of 0.2 point to 49.8 in November 2019. This is the second month that PMI rose, albeit remaining below the 50.0 mark for a seventh month”.

“The latest PMI data reinforces our outlook for some stabilization in Singapore’s manufacturing environment.”

“Moreover, the gain in overall PMI is led by the increase in factory output, a faster rate of increase in inventories and imports, and a slower rate of decline in the employment, new exports and new orders index.”

“The latest PMI data for November has observably painted a relatively positive environment for Singapore’s manufacturing and electronic space, exports and employment. As discussed above, industrial production growth in September and October 2019 has been in positive zone, suggesting that the trough in the manufacturing sector has likely been seen in 3Q19. Nonetheless, Singapore’s economic outlook is still dependent on how global trade performs into the remaining parts of 2019 and 2020, and this is also echoed by companies indicating their concern ‘about further escalation of the global trade war into the next year’ as cited by SIPMM.”