Singapore's manufacturing output rose 12.4 percent on-year in July, its fastest pace in over 12 months, lifted by surging pharmaceuticals production, the government said Wednesday.
Last month's double-digit increase was a sharp improvement from the 9.0 percent drop recorded in June and far exceeded a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts' forecasts for an average decline of 1.0 percent.
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturing expanded 23.0 percent, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said.
The highly volatile biomedical industry, which includes pharmaceuticals, was the star performer, with production up 125.4 percent in July from a year ago.
Pharmaceutical output alone surged an annual 139.2 percent in July.
The sector's performance helped negate declines in other sectors, as electronics output fell 5.6 percent on-year, chemicals dipped 2.3 percent, precision engineering sank 16.6 percent and transport engineering fell 10.2 percent, the EDB said.