Singapore's commerce and financial services offset weak manufacturing

Singapore Q4 GDP's advance estimate has come out more than what the market consensus expected at 5.7% qoq saar. 

Services has primarily led this upward surprise, with the services output contributing 4.4pp to overall qoq saar growth because of the brisk activity in financial services along with the wholesale trade due to the succeeding Global Trader Program.

"Singapore's total services trade remained buoyant in 2015, with total services trade reaching SGD90.8bn in Q3. We expect the trend to extend into Q4, supporting the overall wholesale activities", says Barclays in a research note. 

The trading volume is expected to have picked up further in H2 15, after the pricing benchmarks were rationalized in July. Construction also provided a marginal support, and added 0.3pp to the q/q saar growth, particularly from the public sectors.