SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) will release the advance estimates for Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter and the full-year 2015 on Jan 4 at 8 am.

Private sector economists have downgraded their forecast for Singapore's full-year GDP growth to 1.9 per cent from 2.2 per cent previously, in the latest quarterly poll by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) earlier this month,. The Government's official forecast is for growth "close to 2 per cent".

Singapore's GDP growth in the third quarter was weaker than expected. The economy expanded by 1.9 per cent during the quarter, lower than the economists' median forecast of 2.1 per cent in MAS' September survey. For the fourth quarter, economsts are expecting GDP to expand by 1.4 per cent, lower than the 2.3 per cent forecast in the previous survey.

Growth is expected to pick up next year to 2.2 per cent, according to the economists polled in the MAS survey.