Lee Kuan Yew sees 3.0% Singapore growth in 2010

Lee, 86, now an adviser to the cabinet of his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, cautioned Singaporeans against expecting a return to high growth rates soon because of the island's heavy dependence on exports to rich markets. “We will not resume high growth for several years until the major economies in the world have recovered,” Lee, who holds the title minister mentor, was quoted by local media as saying on Sunday.

It was the first time a government official has publicly put a number to 2010 growth, and it appears more conservative than some private economists' forecasts for next year's recovery, the Straits Times newspaper said. The government currently predicts a gross domestic product contraction of 2.0-2.5 percent this year, less severe than the previous forecast of 4.0-6.0 percent shrinkage in 2009.

The economy grew by an estimated 0.8 percent in the three months to September from a year ago, the economy's first year-on-year expansion in five quarters, according to the ministry of trade and industry.

But key industrial output during September fell 7.7 percent year on year as declines were posted across every sector. The figure snapped two straight months of expansion and was worse than analysts' expectations.

The central bank said last week that Singapore will increasingly look to its services sector rather than industry as the main engine of growth in order to soften the impact of any future global economic crises.

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