Singapore IPI

Singapore IPI: Industrial production growth in Aug’14 picked up further to +4.2% y/y (revised Jul 2014: +3.0% y/y; consensus: +4.9% y/y), led by higher output of Electronics and Biomedical products. However, on m/m basis, decline was back to back with -4.3% m/m after the -0.5% m/m in Jul’14. YTD 2014 growth still in line with Maybank-KE forecast of 5% y/y. The cluster grew by 7.2% y/y (Jul’14: -2.0% y/y) on the surge in Computer Peripherals (+45.2% y/y) following the low base last year when demand was weak, as well as a rebound in Data Storage (Aug’14: 18.8% y/y), which benefitted from higher regional orders. These two sub-clusters accounted for 84% of overall electronics growth for the month. Meanwhile, Biomedical output gained 9.7 y/y (Jul’14: +26.6% y/y) on slower growth in Pharmaceuticals (+7.5% y/y), which offset Medical Techonology’s third consecutive month of double-digit gains (+20.6% y/y). Excluding the volatile Biomedical cluster, IP rebounded +3.0% y/y.