Chart of the Day: Construction demand surges on back of massive public infrastructure projects

But demand from the private sector stayed weak.

Strong demand from public infrastructure projects boosted the construction sector's growth in the first quarter. The construction sector expanded by 6.2% in Q1 picking up from the 4.9% growth recorded in the previous quarter.

This chart from the Ministry of Trade and Industry shows that construction demand in terms of contracts awarded
rebounded in the first quarter, expanding by 4.6%, reversing the 29% fall in the previous quarter.

The improvement was due to an 84% surge in public sector demand which came on the back of the award of major civil
engineering contracts for the Thomson-East Coast Line.

However, private sector contracts awarded remained weak, contracting by 74% in the first quarter, extending the 47% decline in the preceding quarter.

In particular, segments such as private industrial building (-73 per cent), private residential building (-86 per cent) and private commercial building (-60 per cent) developments registered hefty declines in contracts awarded.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia