Singapore prime minister rules out another dip for economy

Singapore, Nov 3 : Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Tuesday said the city-state's economy had bottomed out and was not expected to take another dip after it emerged from its worst recession in history.

"We are out of the trough," said Lee. "We do not expect another dip in the economy."

In the third quarter, Singapore's economy showed its first year-on-year expansion after three quarters of decline, climbing 0.8 percent compared to a year earlier.

Growth of 0.8 percent was "nothing to crow about, but something to be grateful for", Lee said.

"We expect the economy to continue to stabilise," he said, noting that Singapore's export-reliant economy depended heavily on the recovery of the developed economies.

Lee was talking to journalists ahead of hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next week.

The government now expects the economy to shrink between 2 and 2.5 percent in 2009, an improvement from the 4-to-6-percent contraction that it predicted earlier.

--IANS