* Advance estimates

1. Economic growth picked up pace in the first quarter of 2008. Advance estimates1 show that real gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 7.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter, faster than the 5.4 per cent gain in the final quarter of 2007. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis, real GDP expanded by 16.9 per cent, after declining by 4.8 per cent in the previous quarter.
   
2. The manufacturing sector is estimated to have expanded by 13.2 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a 0.2 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2007. This was largely due to a surge in the output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster, following its contraction in the previous quarter. The rest of the manufacturing clusters also enjoyed better performance in the first quarter with the exception of the transport engineering and precision engineering clusters whose growth moderated.
   
3. The construction sector is estimated to have grown by 14.6 per cent in the first quarter, after a 24.3 per cent gain in the preceding quarter.
   
4. The services producing industries are estimated to have grown by 7.6 per cent in the first quarter, similar to the 7.7 per cent in the previous quarter. Financial services continued to be the fastest growing among the services sectors.
   
5. The preliminary GDP estimates for the first quarter of 2008, including performance by sectors, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity, will be released in May 2008 in the Economic Survey of Singapore.
   
   MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY
   10 April 2008
   

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   1The advance GDP estimates for first quarter 2008 are computed largely from the first two months of the quarter (i.e. January and February 2008). They are intended as an early indication of the GDP growth in the quarter, and are subject to revision when more comprehensive data becomes available.
   
   

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