Singapore's leading newspaper, The Straits Times, has taken to cherrypicking even what the government says about the economy.
It reports today the Singapore "economy has probably bottomed out and we are past the worst of the recession", quoting the Ministry of Trade and Industry's Second Permanent Secretary Ravi Menon.
But it doesn't say the ministry thinks the recovery may not be sustained.
Nor does it mention pharmaceuticals was the only growing industry in the manufacturing sector in the second quarter.
The Straits Times says paraphrasing the ministry's press release:
Manufacturing growth was propelled by a surge in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and a rise in inventory restocking in electronics.
Financial services improved markedly, growing 22.8 per cent from the first quarter…
But the ministry's full report on the Economic Survey of Singapore for the second quarter says:
The electronics cluster contracted by 22 per cent. Global demand for electronics products remained weak due to the economic downturn…
The financial services sector contracted by 4.5 per cent (year) on year in the second quarter of 2009, a smaller contraction than the 7.7 per cent contraction in the first quarter. This moderation was driven by the improvement in general investor sentiment.
The financial intermediation cluster weakened further in the second quarter. The offshore banking segment contracted for the third quarter in a row, while the domestic banking segment recorded a smaller expansion in the second quarter. Gains in non-bank credit were underpinned by resilient lending activity to the property and business services sectors.
But loans to financial institutions were down by 2.5 per cent, to manufacturing by 5.2 per cent and for general commerce by 18.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, housing loans were up by 9.2 per cent, building and construction loans by 6 per cent, and loans to professionals and private individuals by 5.3 per cent.
The Straits Times goes on to say quoting local banking analysts that the economy may begin to grow in the second half of the year.
But the government is not so optimistic.
Here's what the Economic Survey says:
On a year-on-year basis, GDP contracted by a much smaller 3.5 per cent in the second quarter, compared to the 9.5 per cent contraction in the first quarter. Nevertheless, this improvement may not be sustained as the key reason for the improved economic performance in the second quarter was a spike in output in the biomedical manufacturing cluster, and inventory restocking in the electronics segments. Although forward-looking indicators such as the composite leading index and purchasing managers’ index point to economic expansion in the near-term, there have been no signs of decisive improvement in final demand in Singapore’s key export markets. Singapore’s exports continued to register double digit declines. In particular, non-oil domestic exports decreased by 14 per cent on year in the second quarter, while re-exports decreased by 24 per cent.
Singapore’s domestic exports to all of her key trading partners (Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, the USA and the European Union) have, at some point, contracted by at least 30 per cent in year-on-year terms.
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This is not the first time. When MOH released information on the state of HIV in Singapore, the health correspondent also cherry-picked the information to make it appear that LGBTs are responsible for HIV in Singapore.