Pharmaceuticals production down in Singapore

A sharp drop in pharmaceuticals production pulled down Singapore's manufacturing sector as overall output shrank 8.2 percent in November from a year ago, government data showed Thursday. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, the sector's output fell 3.6 percent, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said in its monthly report. Excluding the biomedicals industry, which includes pharmaceuticals, manufacturing output actually increased 7.4 percent from a year ago, the EDB said. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting an average 3.3 percent rise in output from the manufacturing sector, a key pillar of Singapore's trade-oriented economy.