SINGAPORE, June 14 — Economists raised their forecasts for Singapore’s growth this year, compared to three months ago, as they upgraded their views on manufacturing and bank lending, a central bank survey showed today.

The median forecast of 21 economists surveyed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was for gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 2.5 per cent in 2017, up from the 2.3 per cent estimated in the previous survey, published in March.

That would mark a pick-up from 2.0 per cent growth in 2016, and would be at the upper end of the government’s forecast range.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry said in May that full-year 2017 GDP growth is likely to come in higher than 2.0 per cent "barring the materialisation of downside risks”, but kept its official GDP growth forecast unchanged at a range of 1-3 per cent.

Economists now expect the manufacturing sector to expand 5.0 per cent in 2017, up from 4.5 per cent seen in the March survey.

They also upgraded their view on bank loans, which are seen increasing 6.2 per cent in 2017. The previous median forecast was 3.2 per cent growth.

Non-oil domestic exports are expected to grow 5.6 per cent in 2017, down from the previous median forecast of 6.1 per cent. Other forecasts that were trimmed include construction, now expected to grow 0.2 per cent compared to 0.3 per cent previously.

The survey’s median forecast for year-on-year GDP growth in the second quarter was 2.7 per cent, up from the previous median of 2.5 per cent.

Singapore’s GDP expanded 2.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, but contracted 1.3 per cent from the previous three months on an annualised and seasonally adjusted basis.

The central bank’s core inflation gauge was expected to rise 1.5 per cent for the whole of 2017, unchanged from the previous survey.

According to the latest MAS survey, economists’ median forecast for all-items CPI inflation in 2017 was trimmed to 0.9 per cent from 1.0 per cent.

Economists estimated that the Singapore dollar will trade at 1.4100 against the US dollar by end-2017. It was trading near 1.3820 today.

Singapore’s advance estimate of second quarter GDP is due to be released in the first half of July. — Reuters