Singapore economy is expected to grow by 3% this year says Singapore PM
Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong recently announced that the country’s economy was expected to grow by close to three per cent this year.
Speaking to about 200 Singaporeans living in Washington during a reception at the Singaporean Embassy in the United States, he said this was an advance estimate from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
“The ministry’s estimate puts the year to year growth for the third quarter of this year at 4.6 per cent,” he said in his upbeat assessment of the country’s prospects.
He noted that the estimate was based on a strong showing by the manufacturing sector, while the services sector had also performed notably well.
The Government had in August revised its growth estimates for 2017 to between 2 and 3 per cent, and Lee said he expects the full year figures will be at the upper end of this range.
He was on a six-day visit to the US, where he met President Donald Trump and other key administration officials.
Lee also took part in two dialogues – at the Economic Club of Washington, DC and at the Council of Foreign Relations.
During his visit, Singapore Airlines and Boeing also signed a S$19 billion agreement for at least 39 new planes.
In his speech, he also the Singaporeans there that Singapore’s ties with the US are wide-ranging, and these go on regardless of a change in administration.
“It is also important for Singapore leaders to get to know key players in every administration, as there is much at stake in Singapore’s ties with the US.
“The US is a big factor in the region and it is important to know its thinking and preoccupations,” he noted.
He said that though the Singaporean economy is doing better, a difficult part it needed to work on is improving productivity.
“We have to work at it patiently sector by sector,” he said, noting that 23 industry transformation maps are being rolled out to help on this front.
These will help “create better jobs for our people” and better assurance that they will have good jobs, he added.
