(menafn – ecpulse)
Today, the Singapore economy recorded the fastest expansion which expanded in the first three months of the year, exceeding analyst's forecasts as the nation's manufacturing and services sectors improved to help the economy, adding the Central Bank of Singapore will increase the interest rates during the next period to curb inflation.
The economy of Singapore released today its gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2011, which widened 23.5%, more than expectations that referred to 11.4%, while the actual reading came higher than the previous reading of 3.9% in the 4th quarter.
Moreover, the annualized GDP expanded 8.5% during the year ended March 31, compared to the prior reading of 12.0% a year earlier, while the anticipations forecasted to be 5.8%.
Singapore exports also had a big role in supporting economic growth, despite non oil domestic exports increased in the first quarter from a year earlier. Further, Economic activity is likely to be sustained at a high level for the rest of the year, even as the underlying growth momentum moderates.
The Central Bank of Singapore noted that economy growth this year will grow at the upper end of the government’s 4 percent-to-6 percent forecast range; also GDP increased 8.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier.
However, the economic growth expanded during the first quarter of the year, as nation's manufacturing advanced, putting the economy on the track to be the world's second-fastest growing.
The central bank, which uses the exchange rate rather than interest rates as its main tool to manage inflation, guides the Singapore dollar against a basket of currencies within an undisclosed band.
While consumer price index surged 5%, the fastest grow in the first two month of 2011, whereas he central bank said today inflation may moderate to about 3 percent by the fourth quarter and is expected to reach the upper end of its 3 percent-to-4 percent forecast range this year.
