Chip downturn poses threat to manufacturing growth in 2023: analysts

Manufacturing output will continue to slowdown in 2022 to 2023.

The government revealed that manufacturing output shrunk anew in October 2022, down by 0.8%, said Maybank in its report.

According to Maybank, the manufacturing output declined for the first time in 13 months in October.

The contraction in industrial production was also due to weaker biomedical, chemicals and electronics output, according to UOB's report.

"Despite the fall in electronics, it should be noted its most essential sub segment, semiconductors, which accounts for nearly 80% of Singapore’s electronics output (or 31.8% share of IP), recorded a small increase of 1.2% year-on-year after four straight months of decline," said UOB.

Slower growth

Maybank said manufacturing output will likely be threatened by the chip downturn and lagging global growth.

This will cause the IP's growth to shrink in the rest of 2022 to early 2023.

Maybank retains its economic forecast to 3.5% in 2022 and 1.5% in 2023.