Singapore lifted its economic growth forecast for 2025 on Friday, buoyed by a stronger third quarter as a surge in demand for AI-related goods powered exports and global trade steadied.
The trade ministry now expects the economy to grow around 4.0 per cent this year, well above its earlier 1.5鈥�2.5 per cent forecast set in August.
The stronger outlook comes on the back of a 4.2 per cent year-on-year rebound in the third quarter, extending the revised 4.7 per cent growth logged in the second, the ministry said.
Friday鈥檚 forecast came as markets worldwide have been rattled by growing concerns that an AI-fuelled rally in equity markets may have gone too far, and warnings that the hundreds of billions of investment in the sector may not see returns for some time.
Manufacturing, wholesale trade, and financial services drove Singapore鈥檚 third-quarter expansion, the ministry said.
The electronics cluster grew 6.1 per cent, fuelled by a surge in demand for AI-related semiconductors, servers and server components, the ministry said.
Biomedicals, which include pharmaceuticals, expanded 8.9 per cent.
Growth in the wholesale trade sector was largely from robust sales volumes in machinery equipment, which is also related to strong world demand for AI-related electronics, the ministry added.聽