Singapore's industrial production saw an unexpected increase in July following a decline in the previous month, according to preliminary data released by the Economic Development Board on Monday.
Industrial production rose by 1.8 percent year-on-year in July, reversing a 4.3 percent drop in June. Analysts had anticipated a further decline of 1.1 percent.
Excluding the biomedical manufacturing sector, industrial production experienced a 3.4 percent annual growth in July, compared to a 2.2 percent decrease in the preceding month.
On a month-to-month basis, industrial production surged by 10.1 percent in July, overturning a 4.3 percent fall in June. This marked the fastest growth observed in five months.
Among the key industry clusters, the transport engineering segment demonstrated the highest growth, soaring by 13.3 percent annually in July. General manufacturing output also increased by 7.3 percent. In contrast, biomedical manufacturing output saw a sharp contraction of 17.4 percent.