Singapore recession deeper than expected

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SINGAPOR, Apr 15 (AFP): Singapore's worst economic crisis since independence is even more severe than expected, with output now forecast to shrink by as much as 9.0 per cent in 2009, official data showed.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said gross domestic product (GDP) would fall by 6.0 to 9.0 per cent this year, a stunning downgrade from the previous official estimate of a decline of 2.0 to 5.0 per cent.
"MTI's earlier forecast had factored in the likelihood of a weak first quarter, but the advance estimates indicate that actual GDP growth will undershoot earlier expectations by a significant margin," it said.
Prior to this year, Singapore's worst performance since it became a republic in 1965 came in 2001, when the economy contracted 2.4 per cent.
The revised 2009 outlook was the fourth downgrade since November, a reflection of the severity of the recession confronting the trade-dependent island as electronics and other manufactured exports continued to plunge.
However, Standard Chartered bank said projections that Singapore's economy may contract by more than 10 per cent in 2009 "seem overly pessimistic to us."