SINGAPORE, April 10: Singapore's economy expanded strongly in the first quarter, helped by a recovering construction industry, and should easily meet the government's 2007 growth target of 4.5-6.5 per cent, official figures showed on Tuesday.

The GDP expanded 6pc in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, coming in at the upper end of analyst projections of 5.2-6 per cent.

Preliminary estimates showed GDP expanded 7.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter, on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis, compared with a 7.9 per cent gain in the three months to December.

“The Singapore economy continued to grow at a healthy pace,” the trade and industry ministry said in a statement.

Economists said the figures indicated the Singapore economy is on course to hit the government's growth target of 4.5-6.5 per cent for 2007 and could even surpass it after an expansion of 7.9 per cent in 2006.

Song Seng Wun, an economist with CIMB-GK brokerage who had put the first quarter expansion of 5.7pc, said he would revise his 2007 forecast from 5.6 per cent to 6.6 per cent.—AFP