Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday that the country's economy, which is already in recession, may face years of slow growth.
"I think that the recession - to the best of the experts' judgment - may last a year. Maybe if we are lucky, three quarters," Lee told members of Singapore's Foreign Correspondents Association at a lunch.
"But the recovery from the recession is likely to be weaker than from previous recessions and we must be prepared for several years of slow growth," he added.
The city-state's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 6.8 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, following the 5.3 percent decline in the second quarter. That means Singapore economy turned into technical recession.
Singapore's key non-oil domestic exports fell 15 percent in October over a year ago and industrial production fell 13 percent, due to weak demand from the United States and European markets for Singapore's electronics and drugs.
Last month, the government further cut its 2008 growth forecast to 2.5 percent from 3 percent. For 2009, the government expected GDP to contract up to 1 percent.
Source: Xinhua
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