Exports rose 9.4% on-year after growing a downwardly revised 9.9% in November, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said Monday. The pace was slower than the median 10.5% expansion forecast by 10 economists in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
The risk of a property bubble forming in Asia is moderate despite rising real estate prices, credit ratings firm Moody’s Corp. (MCO) said Tuesday, according to AFP.
Government actions to cool down the market appear to be working, said Deborah Schuler, a senior vice president at Moody’s who overseas ratings in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
“At the moment, we think asset bubbles are confined to the property sector and it’s still only a moderate risk,” she said after a news briefing in Singapore.
Singapore’s manufacturing output expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in February, albeit at a slowed pace than January’s record increase, suggesting the rate of growth may moderate in coming months.
Output rose 19.1% from a year earlier, boosted by electronics and pharmaceuticals, the Economic Development Board said Friday, beating the median forecast of a 14.6% increase, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll. The expansion in January was 39.4%.
Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav LajÄak said that there is reason for “careful optimism†regarding the potential unfreezing of the SAA. “I think that positive progress has been made, and everyone now is expecting the new report from chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz. I think that there are reasons for careful optimism,†LajÄak told Belgade daily VeÄernje Novosti regarding the chances that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the EU could be implemented.
