Reply #25: Singapore's December Production Rises Adjusted 19.4%

[54anickel]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=ayf.IAU4xfUc&refer=asia

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore's industrial production unexpectedly surged in December as drugmakers on the island, which include Pfizer Inc., expanded output.

Factory output, which accounts for a quarter of the economy, gained a seasonally adjusted 19.4 percent in December from the previous month after shrinking a revised 5.1 percent in November, the Economic Development Board said today in a report. The median forecast of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey was for manufacturing to have dropped 0.1 percent from November.

The surge in drugs production will probably pompt the government to raise its preliminary economic growth estimates for the fourth quarter and 2004, according to economists including Chua Hak Bin. Singapore's economy expanded at a 2.4 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter and 8.1 percent in 2004, the government said on Jan. 3.

``This jump in drugs output will have a substantial impact on the GDP estimates,'' said Chua, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Singapore. He estimates the economy may have expanded at a 7.4 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter and by 8.4 percent in 2004.

The government has offered incentives including tax breaks to spur drugmakers including Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline Plc. to increase factory capacity in order to broaden Singapore's production base beyond electronics. Monthly production of pharmaceuticals, which accounts for 16 percent of manufacturing, tends to fluctuate as plants close for maintenance and new capacity comes on stream.

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