SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore's economy shrank in the fourth quarter amid slowing global demand for the city-state's exports, but the contraction was not as deep as it previously reported, the trade and industry ministry said Thursday.
Gross domestic product shrank 2.5 percent in the October to December period from the previous quarter, the ministry said. Manufacturing slumped 11 percent while construction fell 2.2 percent.
Preliminary figures announced last month, which were based mostly on data from October and November, showed that the economy contracted 4.9 percent in the final quarter of 2011.
The manufacturing sector, and electronics in particular, have been "hit hard" by sluggish demand from the U.S. and Europe, said Leif Eskesen, an economist with HSBC in Singapore. "These factors will keep growth weak during the first half of 2012."
Singapore has relied on manufacturing, finance and tourism to lift GDP per head in the island nation of 5 million people to one of the highest in the world.
However, workers' income as a proportion of the economy is low compared with other developed nations, partly reflecting a policy of importing low cost workers from elsewhere in Asia.
The ministry reiterated its forecast of 2012 economic growth between 1 percent and 3 percent after the economy grew 4.9 percent last year and 14.8 in 2010.
The economy grew 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier, the ministry said.
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