SINGAPORE'S beleaguered manufacturing sector may be finally turning the corner, if a leading indicator of production activity is anything to go by.

Electronics output expanded last month for the first time since September last year, as new local and overseas orders came in, according to the latest Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released on Tuesday.

This was not quite enough to push the overall PMI, which is used as a barometer of the manufacturing economy's health, back into positive territory.

But although it shrank again last month for the eighth time, the contraction in the PMI was the smallest since last September, indicating that the plunge in manufacturing may have bottomed out.

Still, the PMI has deviated from actual factory output numbers recently. Although the PMI for March seemed to signal an uptrend in the sector, industrial production actually plunged a record amount that month.

But economists were generally upbeat, saying that this is the latest confirmation that an economic recovery is on the way.

'It looks like good news, and it's pretty much in line with what we're seeing in the region as well,' said HSBC economist Prakriti Sofat.

'China's and India's PMIs have been picking up as well and they have both gone above 50.' A PMI reading above 50 means that output has increased, while one below 50 means manufacturing has shrank.

Singapore's overall PMI last month registered a reading of 49.2, but its electronics PMI jumped to 51.6.