SINGAPORE'S economy picked up sharply in the second quarter, beating forecasts with a blistering 8.2 percent gain after an already strong 6.4 percent in the three months to March, official figures showed Tuesday, July 10.

Contributing to the growth was an "astonishing" 17.9 percent expansion in the construction sector, the fastest in almost a decade, DBS Group Research said in a report.

Economists had estimated 6.2-7.7 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the second quarter.

On a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted annualised basis, GDP, the value of all goods and services produced in the country, grew 12.8 percent after 8.5 percent in the first three months of the year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.

GDP grew 6.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, official figures show.

"The Singapore economy registered strong growth in the second quarter of 2007," the ministry said.

The data helped boost the local bourse to a record intraday high of 3,653.27 points in morning trade before the Straits Times Index fell back on late profit-taking to close at 3,620.32.

"With the strong growth, all around, stocks should get a nice little lift," CIMB-GK research head Song Seng Wun said.

Growth in the manufacturing sector jumped sharply to 10.2 percent, led by biomedicals and transport engineering, which includes oil rigs and ships, from 4.4 percent in the first quarter.

The ministry said construction grew 17.9 percent, up from 11.6 percent in the first three months of the year.

"Construction of the two integrated resorts and a healthy slew of private residential projects arising from the current property market boom have certainly boosted the sector," DBS said.

The integrated resorts are multi-billion-dollar casino, entertainment and convention complexes, due to open by 2010.

Services slowed slightly to 7.0 percent from 7.2 percent but the trade and industry ministry called the performance "healthy."

The figures are advance estimates for real GDP -- growth adjusted for inflation -- and computed largely from April and May data. More detailed figures will be released in August.

"Basically, these are all-round strong numbers," said Song, who upgraded his full-year GDP projection to 7.5 percent from 6.6 percent.

"Barring any sort of nasty surprises from the pharma sector in the second half, manufacturing should do reasonably well since we expect (high) technology to be a smaller drag," Song said.

DBS said manufacturing growth was better than expected after a "dismal" first quarter, with the sector dragged down by weakness in global electronics demand.

The bank's analysts said they were revising upwards their 2007 growth forecast to 7.3 percent from 6.3 percent.

In May, the trade ministry upgraded its full-year GDP growth forecast to 5.0-7.0 percent from 4.5-6.5 percent.

Singapore's economy grew 7.9 percent in 2006, one of the fastest rates in Asia.

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