Singapore's economy has suffered a record contraction in the second quarter, tipping it into recession and putting the trade-reliant city-state on course for its worst-ever slump this year as the coronavirus outbreak extracts a heavy toll on business, Reuters reported.

GDP plunged by a record 41.2 per cent in the three months ended March, on a quarter-on-quarter annualised basis, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed, worse than economists' expectations for a 37.4pc decline in a Reuters poll.

“We were expecting these numbers to look quite dismal, although this is worse than what we had expected,” said Steve Cochrane, economist at Moody's Analytics.