SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore manufacturing plummeted in August as a fall in global demand for the city-state's exports has pushed the country toward a recession.
Manufacturing fell 12 percent in August compared to the same month a year earlier, the government's Economic Development Board said Friday. That follows a 22 percent plunge in July. Output fell 1.9 percent in August from July, the board said in a statement.
The slowdown in manufacturing was led by pharmaceuticals which fell 36 percent, consumer electronics down 60 percent and petrochemicals dropping 15 percent, the board said.
Singapore's economy is suffering from falling demand from the U.S., Europe and Japan, with the city-state's non-oil exports falling 14 percent last month and 5.8 percent in July. Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said earlier this week the economy may slip into a recession, or two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product contraction.
Singapore's GDP grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter and 2.1 percent in the second.
