Singapore business services sector improved

Business receipts for services industries in Singapore improved 4.2 percent on year in the fourth quarter of last year, up from the growth of 2.8 percent in the previous quarter, the Department of Statistics of Singapore released on Wednesday. All services industries registered higher business receipts in Q4 compared to a year ago. In particular, education services enjoyed the biggest annual turnover growth of 8.7 percent in Q4 compared to a year ago, following real estate, rental and leasing services with 6.3 percent growth. Financial and insurance services registered in third, with annual growth of 5.6 percent in Q4. The data, excluding business receipts from wholesale and retail trade and accommodation and food services, also registered a quarterly rise of 2.4 percent in Q4 compared with Q3. On non-seasonally adjusted quarted-on-quarter basis, all services industries registered higher business receipts except for education services, which saw a sharp decline of 14.9 percent.