S’pore factory output plunges as trade war pain deepens

Output down: Workers monitor microchip production in the clean room of a plant in Singapore. Industrial production dropped 8% from a year earlier, the weakest since December 2015. — Reuters

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s factory output plunged in August by the most in almost four years, a sign that the city state’s manufacturing downturn could be deepening.

Industrial production dropped 8% from a year earlier, the weakest since December 2015 and worse than all the forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists. It shrank 7.5% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the Economic Development Board said in a statement.