Singapore’s Industrial Production Grows Less Than Expected

Singapore’s industrial production grew less than economists estimated in February as a slump in electronics output persisted.

Manufacturing rose 12.1 percent from a year earlier after a revised 9.6 percent decline in January, the Economic Development Board said today. The median of 13 economists surveyedby Bloomberg News was for a 16.2 percent gain.

Asia’s manufacturing rebound from the first two months of the year, when the output numbers were distorted by the Lunar New Year holidays shutting factories, may be limited by Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and China’s slowing economic growth. The region’s currencies have declined in March even as six months of the strongest U.S. job growth since 2006 bolstered the outlook for demand.

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