Singapore’s economy expanded by 2.4 percent in the third quarterof this year compared to a year ago, the Ministry of Trade and Industry(MTI) said in its report on advance third-quarter gross domestic product(GDP) data on October 14.

The manufacturing sectorgrew by 1.4 percent, lower than the 1.5 percent growth in the precedingquarter, with growth supported primarily by the biomedical manufacturingand electronics clusters.

The construction sectoralso experienced a 1.4 percent year-on-year increase, a sharp slowdownfrom the 4.1 percent growth in the previous quarter, due to weakerprivate sector construction activities, the MTI said.

It added that the services industry grew by 2.9 percent, slightlyhigher than the 2.8 percent growth in the second quarter, driven byfinance, insurance and business services.

Also on October 14, theMonetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it will maintain its policyof allowing a modest and gradual appreciation of the Singaporedollar against its policy band.

MAS said thepolicy stance, which has been in place since April 2012, is appropriatefor containing domestic and imported sources of inflationary pressures,and ensuring that inflation expectations remain well anchored.

It also lowered its inflation outlook for 2014 with CPI-All Itemsinflation, or headline inflation, at 1.0 to 1.5 percent in 2014,compared to 1.5 to 2.0 percent as predicted before.

As for core inflation, which excludes the cost of accommodation andprivate road transport, MAS said this is likely to average 2.0 to 2.5percent in 2014, lower than the previous forecast of 2.0 to 3.0percent.-VNA