The Straits Times Index traded 19.96 points higher or 0.71% up, at 2,832.97 as at 12.30pm on Nov 23, after the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced earlier in the day that Singapore’s GDP growth is expected to come in at -6.5% to -6.0% from its previous estimates of -7% to -5%.
Singapore’s GDP for the 3Q2020 ended September fell 5.8% y-o-y, registering an improvement from the 13.2% y-o-y plunge in the previous quarter ended June.
See: Decline in Singapore's economy comes in better than expected at -5.8% in 3Q2020
Week-on-week, the index was up 3.09% from 2,748 on Nov 16.
MTI says it also expects the economy to grow between 4% to 6% in 2021.
The climb follows weeks of investor optimism on hopes that a Covid-19 vaccine may be released soon.
See also: Pfizer, BioNTech plan filing as vaccine proves 95% effective and Moderna says Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in a preliminary analysis
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