This photo shows the Marina Bay Sands hotels resort and Garden by the Bay domes backdropped with the city skyline in Singapore on June 27, 2025.<\/p>\n
Roslan Rahman | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Singapore’s economy grew at 1.4% in the second quarter of 2025, avoiding a technical recession as it reversed the 0.5% contraction recorded in the first three months of the year.<\/p>\n
On a year-over-year basis, the country’s economy expanded 4.3% in the second quarter of 2025, accelerating from 4.1% in the first three months and beating expectations. A Reuters poll of economists had forecasted a 3.5% growth.<\/p>\n
A technical recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarter-over-quarter declines in a country’s GDP. Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated a 0.6% quarter-over-quarter growth.<\/p>\n
The GDP growth was led by the manufacturing sector, which expanded 5.5% year over year, up from 4.4% in the first quarter of 2025. The sector makes up about 17% of the country’s economy.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the GDP beat, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said in its release<\/a> that “there remains significant uncertainty and downside risks in the global economy in the second half of 2025 given the lack of clarity over the tariff policies of the U.S.”<\/p>\n Back in April, MTI had downgraded the country’s GDP growth to 0%-2%, down from its previous forecast of 1%-3%. Singapore recorded a full-year GDP growth figure of 4.4% in 2024.<\/p>\n Unlike other countries in Southeast Asia that have been hit with “tariff letters,” Singapore has not received such a “letter” from U.S. President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n However, Singapore still faces the baseline 10% tariff from the U.S., despite running a trade deficit with the U.S. and having a free trade agreement since 2004.<\/p>\n Singapore’s economic resilience task force, set up in April in response to the U.S. tariffs, announced last week<\/a> that it will roll out grants to help businesses cope with the impact of global trade tensions.<\/p>\n The GDP release also comes ahead of a monetary policy decision by the country’s central bank later in July.<\/p>\n