A woman runs past a closed off Merlion Park on June 12, 2020 in Singapore.
Suhaimi Abdullah | Getty Images
Singapore’s economy shrank by 42.9% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter – sending the Southeast Asian country into a technical recession, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Tuesday.
The latest update on Singapore’s gross domestic product was lower than the official estimate released last month. The estimate, largely calculated from data in April and May, had shown that the economy shrank by 41.2% in the second quarter compared to the previous three months.
On an annual basis, the economy shrank by 13.2% in the quarter ended June 30, according to the ministry. That is worse than the previous estimate of a 12.6% year-over-year contract.
The ministry has revised its full annual forecast for Singapore to register an economic contract of between 5% and 7% by 2020.
Large parts of Singapore’s economy were shut down in early April as the country entered a sub-club – what the government called a “power outage” – to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Some of the restrictions have become easier since the beginning of June, allowing most of the economy to reopen.
This is an evolving story. Please check back for updates.
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