The Economic Development Board (EDB) said industrial production sank 9.3 percent year on year, worse than the average 6.4 percent tipped by a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven economists.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output was down 9.2 percent, the EDB said in its monthly report.

Electronics output was down an annual 20.4 percent, chemicals dropped 8.9 percent, precision engineering sank 18.1 percent and transport engineering contracted 12.4 percent, the EDB said.

The slump was also partially blamed on slower growth in the biomedical sector where production was just 11.6 percent higher compared with 120.8 percent in May.

The biomedical sector, which hosts several of the world's top drug makers, is highly volatile because pharmaceutical firms routinely close plants down briefly to prepare for the production of a different drug.

In the half-year to June, overall manufacturing output was down 20 percent, the EDB said.

Singapore's manufacturing sector, the backbone of its trade-led economy, has been hit by the global slump as consumers around the world cut back on spending.

Most of what is manufactured is either shipped as components to be assembled elsewhere or exported as final consumer goods to the city-state's main markets including the United States.

Last week, the government narrowed its 2009 growth outlook to a contraction of 4-6 percent from a previous forecast of minus 6-9 percent after the economy grew for the first time in a year in the second quarter.

Preliminary second quarter data suggest Singapore is emerging from a recession that began in the second-half of last year but economists said a rebound in electronics demand was key to any rebound in manufacturing.

"While pharmaceuticals may yet enjoy some more months of growth... a more sustained recovery for manufacturing here will require a more broad-based return of global consumer demand, especially for electronics," said Alvin Liew, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank.

Electronic shipments made up almost 40 percent of Singapore's non-oil domestic exports in 2008, a reflection of its importance to the country's trade-oriented economy.

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