Singapore has been a strong economy for the past few decades, surviving storms like COVID quite well. This is due to their strong investment in finance and technology companies, helping the countries GDP. However, amidst strong historical economic performance, Singapore has cut growth expectations due to US tariffs.
Singapore Cuts Growth Expectations Amidst Tariffs
Leaders of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) predict their local economy could have zero growth in 2025. This is a downgrade from previous GDP growth to 0% from 3% initially. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said “sweeping tariffs introduced by the U.S., and the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, are expected to weigh significantly on global trade and global economic growth.” MAS agrees with the Ministry of Trade and Industry because key trade partners of Singapore are expecting lower business and economic confidence. However, other economists are a bit more optimistic. Capital Economics markets economist Shivaan Tandon believes that Singapore’s economy will improve by 2% during the year, which is down from their previous estimate of 3%
Asia as a whole is heavily reliant upon trade, so these tariffs certainly won’t help Asian countries economically. India, New Zealand, and the Philippines have all relaxed economic policies due to Trump’s tariffs. Experts saw the financial sector in Southeast Asia slowed in the first quarter of 2025. In fact, Singapore’s economy decreased 0.8% from Q4 to Q1. This is due to a decrease in the financial sector but also a slowing of the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is a large contributor to Singapore’s GDP, but growth slowed from 7.4% to 5%, quarter over quarter. However, MAS believes that inflation may slow in the process. MAS forecasts inflation to be anywhere between 0.5% and 1.5%, down from the initial estimate of 1.5% and 2.5%.Experts in the Asian economic area also expect more and more easing of economic policies to adjust for the uncertainty. Central banks likely will only continue to ease policies if they believe those are necessary.
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