Trade protectionism, tighter liquidity conditions cast darker cloud over Singapore's economic outlook: DBS

SINGAPORE (July 17): DBS Bank’s outlook for Singapore’s economy in 3Q and beyond is turning “increasingly cloudy” on expectations of a slowdown in GDP growth, as well as declining trade prospects in the longer-term due to the effects of trade protectionism and tighter liquidity conditions.

This follows Enterprise Singapore’s Tuesday morning announcement of Singapore’s external trade figures for June 2018, which reflected a marginal y-o-y increase of non-domestic oil exports (NODX) by 1.1% in June – in line with the bank’s expectations of a “drop back to reality” in the headline number.

“Although the economy had held up well in the second quarter, the impact from the slowdown on the external front will only manifest in the third quarter figures. Expect an even slower GDP growth in the third quarter. Coupled that with the effects of trade protectionism and tighter liquidity conditions, economic outlook in the longer horizon is turning increasingly cloudy,” comments senior economist Irvin Seah in DBS’s Asian Insights report on Tuesday.

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