SINGAPORE / MENA Newswire / — Singapore’s economy expanded 6.0% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, lifted by AI-related demand that boosted electronics manufacturing, precision engineering and semiconductor-linked trade, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said. The performance extended a 5.7% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2025 and exceeded the government’s earlier advance estimate of 4.6% for the January to March period.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, gross domestic product grew 1.0%, easing from 1.3% in the preceding quarter. The first-quarter result was driven mainly by wholesale trade, manufacturing and finance and insurance, while construction also recorded double-digit growth. The Ministry of Trade and Industry kept Singapore’s full-year 2026 GDP growth forecast at 2.0% to 4.0%, while noting weaker external demand conditions than assessed earlier in the year.
Manufacturing grew 7.9% year on year in the first quarter, supported by electronics, precision engineering, transport engineering and general manufacturing. The electronics cluster recorded 26.1% real output growth, led by the infocomms and consumer electronics segment at 35.3% and semiconductors at 28.4%. The chemicals and biomedical manufacturing clusters contracted, reflecting uneven performance within Singapore’s industrial base during the quarter.
AI demand lifts electronics
Wholesale trade grew 11.7% from a year earlier, extending a 9.9% gain in the previous quarter. The expansion was led by machinery, equipment and supplies, supported by higher wholesale volumes of telecommunications and computers and electronic components. At the same time, the fuels and chemicals segment contracted, weighed down by petroleum and petroleum products, while crude oil and derivative shortages affected activity in related trade and manufacturing segments.
Enterprise Singapore said non-oil domestic exports grew 9.6% in the first quarter, after a 12.7% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2025. Electronics exports rose 57.8%, while non-oil re-exports increased 45.4%, led primarily by electronics. Total merchandise trade expanded 25.6%, and total services trade grew 4.4%, reflecting broad gains across Singapore’s external trade indicators for the quarter.
Export outlook revised
Enterprise Singapore raised its 2026 forecast for non-oil domestic exports to growth of 3.0% to 5.0%, from the earlier range of 2.0% to 4.0%, citing better-than-expected first-quarter trade performance, particularly in electronics. Singapore’s electronics cluster is the largest manufacturing cluster in the economy, accounting for 43.2% of manufacturing nominal value added and 8.0% of total nominal value added in 2025.
Semiconductors remain the largest segment within the electronics cluster, accounting for 80.2% of the cluster’s nominal value added in 2025, up from 45.6% in 2000. Finance and insurance expanded 5.7% year on year in the first quarter, while construction rose 11.8%. The GDP and trade data underline Singapore’s role in regional AI supply chains and its exposure to global electronics, energy and trade conditions.