SINGAPORE, Dec 30: Singapore’s economy likely slowed in the fourth quarter and may have even slipped back into recession for a second time in as many years as factory production sputters, a Reuters poll showed on Monday.

But views on the city-state’s performance in the final three months of 2002 are sharply divided. Some analysts say a second straight quarter of economic contraction — the technical definition of a recession — may be narrowly avoided thanks to a burst of Christmas shopping.—Reuters