The Malaysian Insider, 27 Feb 2009
SINGAPORE, Feb 27 — Singapore's economy shrank 4.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, worse than the 3.7 per cent decline estimated last month, as financial services performed even more poorly than expected.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry in its annual economic survey released yesterday said that the financial sector contracted 8.1 per cent, substantially worse than the 1.8 per cent drop forecast in January, on the back of significant declines in trading activities in foreign exchange and stock brokerage, fund management and Asian Currency Units.
On the whole, services producing industries were down 1.3 per cent in the quarter, substantially below the MTI's previous estimate of a 0.1 per cent fall. Services make up roughly 60 per cent of Singapore's S$257 billion (RM616 billion) economy.
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