Why the easing in Singapore PMI is a glass half full scenario for analysts

It still hovers in the expansion territory.

Singapore Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) recorded a marginal dip in February, easing to 50.9 with the slower rate of expansion in factory output, new orders, new exports, and lower imports.

This came as the electronics PMI decline by 0.4 to 51.4 in the said month, attributed to a drop of 0.6 point in factory output, as well as slower expansion in new orders, new exports, imports, and employment.

According to DBS, this pullback was imminent, noting that although PMI has eased, it is still on the expansionary side.

"Our view is that a pullback was imminent. The rapid pace of expansion in the 2016 fourth quarter was not sustainable partly due to the capacity constraint in some industries, the Lunar New Year effect (the festive season lull in China stretches to early-February) and industry specific cycles (i.e., pharmaceutical). Hence, the moderation doesn’t come as a surprise at all," DBS noted.

More so, Singapore is not the only one seeing such trend. DBS noted that the easing in PMI is also being observed in key markets such as China, US, and the Eurozone, which bodes well for the outlook of the sector in the near-term.

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