Economy to grow at faster than usual pace

After suffering fits and starts for most of 2021, the Singapore economy is now set to grow at a faster than usual pace, with economic output already returning to its pre-pandemic level in the third quarter, the central bank said on Thursday.

With the resurgence of Covid-19 a lingering threat, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also expects rising inflation - both at home and abroad - to challenge the outlook for Singapore's trade-driven economy.

But, if all goes well, MAS said the growth momentum in the last three months of the year and through 2022 would be supported by ebbing infection waves of Covid-19 and rising vaccination rates worldwide, allowing more countries - including Singapore - to gradually lift pandemic-related curbs on economic activity.

In its macroeconomic review released on Thursday, MAS kept its 2021 forecast for Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 6 per cent to 7 per cent and said expansion in 2022 should be slower but still "above-trend".

With regards to "above-trend" growth, economists estimate that the Singapore economy has expanded at an average of 2 per cent to 3 per cent in the last several years before the pandemic.

Most of them have pencilled GDP growth of 4 per cent to 5 per cent for 2022.

The Straits Times