Translation Results Requested Through Conyac Made Public

On a
y-o-y basis, the output fell by just 0.5%, due to recovering demand for biomedical and transport
engineering products that offset the falling production of electronic goods. Biomedical output rose by
68.4% y-o-y, with pharmaceuticals also posting a 77.9% increase in production, supported by a wider
variety of APIs manufactured and a rise in the volume of currently produced medicines. In March 2009,
biomedical output fell by 54.8%, dragged down by a 57.3% fall in pharmaceutical production. EDB
explained this performance as a result of the change in the API mix. In Nov 2009, Singapore’s EDB reported that overall production fell by 8.2% y-o-y and 3.6% m-om.
The EDB’s monthly report indicates that a 52.5% drop in pharmaceutical production was the primary reason for the overall decline. The data also show that industrial production, excluding the biomedicals industry, was up 7.4% y-o-y. Previously, in Oct 2009, the country registered a 3.6% y-o-y increase in manufacturing output. However, the output is lower than economists’ expectations (of a 6.3% y-o-y increase), due to a slowdown in the pharmaceutical sector. In the same period, the country recorded a mere 0.8% y-o-y increase in biomedical manufacturing output, although closures for cleaning between production cycles were partly to blame. Pharmaceutical production, which makes up about 20% of the manufacturing industry, registered a 15.2% drop in September 2009, compared with 107.8% growth in
August 2009.
During September 2010, the volatile pharmaceuticals industry helped manufacturing output register
26.2% y-o-y growth. The output growth beat consensus forecast of 18.9% y-o-y growth as well as 7.7%
y-o-y output growth recorded during August 2010.