SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced today that it will maintain the GDP growth forecast for 2009 at -9.0 to -6.0 per cent.

Singapore's economy contracted by 14.6 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted annualised basis in first quarter of 2009, compared to the decline of 16.4 per cent recorded in the last quarter of 2008.

However, in year-on-year terms, real GDP contracted by 10.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.

All major sectors of the economy experienced further quarter-on-quarter declines, except for construction and financial services.

Manufacturing contracted by 26.6 per cent, worse than the previous quarter?s contraction of 21.3 per cent. It is weighed down by continued weakness in electronics, biomedical manufacturing, precision engineering and chemicals.

The services producing industries contracted by 10.3 per cent, less than the 15.0 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Inflation

Meanwhile, CPI inflation has slowed significantly to 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, down from 5.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

This has mainly been due to a downward correction of global commodity prices from the peaks in 2008.

CPI inflation is estimated to continue to fall in the coming months.

For 2009, the forecast for CPI inflation is maintained at -1.0 to 0 per cent.