Singapore’s building sector is set to bear the brunt of the Cover-19 pandemic in the short-term, media reports said. With that, it will now shrink by 10.3 percent this year, according to data published by Fitch Solutions.
Singapore’s building sector’s current figure is lower compared to the previous forecast of 3.2 percent contraction. This in turn has made the city-state the most aggressively hit market in the Southeast Asia region.
According to the media reports, Fitch said that more than 21,000 tests have been conducted on migrant workers. This represents nearly 6 percent of the migrant worker populations. The report also noted that activity in Singapore’s construction sector is anticipated to recover gradually in the second half of the year. However, it does not indicate that the recovery will match last year’s industry levels.
Although the shortage of labour is seen across all construction projects, reduced investments in Singapore’s building sector last year might result in lower construction activity in 2020. “We forecast the building construction sector to shrink by 11.5 percent year on year, a drop of 6.3 percentage points from our previous forecast of minus 5.2 percent,” the report said.
However, Fitch foresees a number of significant government contracts to be awarded during the year to further enhance the public transport system, media reports said. These contracts include the construction of MRT Jurong Region and Cross Island Lines, as well as select parts of North-South Corridor.