Singapore's recession-hit economy will stage a mild recovery next year but growth will remain at a fraction of the city-state's long-term average, a survey of private-sector forecasters suggests.
The quarterly poll conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore found economists expected gross domestic product to expand 1.5 per cent next year. In only three years since independence - 1985, 1998 and this year - has the economy fared worse.
This month's survey, based on responses from 24 forecasters, also found expectations had been scaled back dramatically since the previous study, conducted before the September 11 attacks in the United States.
In the September poll, the average GDP growth forecast for next year was 4.7 per cent. This week's survey also noted that there was 'considerable uncertainty in the outlook for GDP growth [next year]'.
'Most respondents now expect a postponement in recovery till the second half of [next year], predicated on an upturn in both the US economy and the global electronics industry,' the authority said.
'This compares with the previous survey where the expectation was for a recovery by the end of [this year] or early [next year].'
The predictions tally with statements from government ministers, who have warned in recent months that recovery would come only well into next year.
