Singapore PMI surges to highest level in a year

Investing.com -- Singapore’s private sector expanded at its sharpest pace in a year during September, with the S&P Global Singapore Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumping to 56.4 from 51.2 in August.

The latest reading marked the eighth consecutive month of improvement in business conditions, driven by a steep rise in new orders and output growth. Companies attributed the expansion to better underlying demand conditions and successful marketing promotion efforts.

To manage increasing workloads, Singaporean firms resumed hiring in September after cutting headcounts in August. Despite solid employment growth, backlogs accumulated at the most pronounced pace in a year.

Purchasing activity rose for the first time since May, supporting the first expansion in stocks of purchases in five months. Some companies reported buying additional items as safety stock due to lengthening lead times, with suppliers’ delivery times extending at the most pronounced pace in the year-to-date.

Input prices continued to increase in September, with the rate of inflation reaching its highest level since January. Companies cited higher costs for input materials, utilities, and wages. In response, firms passed these costs on to clients, leading to the strongest increase in selling prices since January.

Business confidence among Singaporean companies improved to the highest level in just under a year, with firms expressing optimism about business expansion plans and increased economic activity driving sales in the year ahead.

"September’s S&P Global Singapore PMI indicated that the Singaporean private sector expanded at a sharp pace in the closing month of the third quarter of 2025," said Jingyi Pan, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Pan noted that while widespread US tariffs led to softer growth in August, demand rebounded in September. Forward-looking indicators pointed to continued growth into the start of the fourth quarter, though Pan cautioned that "the sharp intensification of price pressures in September will have to be monitored for any impact on sales."

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