Economists said the latest factory ouput figures were unlikely to affect the official gross domestic product (GDP) growth target of 8.0-9.0 percent this year.

Analysts had forecast growth of 11-15.5 percent for manufacturing output in September but the biomedical industry weighed down overall numbers. In August, manufacturing output rose 5.0 percent from a year earlier.

Electronics output in September was up 20.4 percent from a year ago to cushion the impact of a 12.3 percent decline in the increasingly important biomedical industry, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said.

Biomedical output fell due to a maintenance shutdown in one of the drug-making plants and a lower value product mix, the EDB said.

Strong export orders for mobile communications and computers were the drivers behind the double-digit jump in electronics production.

Within the electronics industry, communications and consumer electronics output rose 51.7 percent from a year ago, computer pripherals were up 27.7 percent and semiconductors were 22.5 percent higher.

The transport engineering industry was another star performer, posting a 32.7 rise in output on strong local and export demand, the EDB said.

"Production of machinery such as refrigerating machinery, compressors, generators and machine tools continued to grow," it said.

"Both local and export demand combined to boost the higher output of metal and plastic components."

The chemical sector also turned in a solid contribution with an 11.5 percent gain, boosted by a 24.6 percent rise in petroleum production, the EDB said.

Precision engineering output rose 7.8 percent and general manufacturing industries, which include printing, shrank 0.1 percent, it said.

The September manufacturing figures "are not too bad if you consider the fact that the main disappointment came from the pharmaceuticals sector which is very volatile anyway," said Nizam Idris, deputy head of research at IDEAglobal.

"Electronics is still growing at double digits. Although we see a deceleration in the sector for the next two to three quarters, the deceleration is likely to be more gradual than expected," he told AFP.

"This year's 8.0-9.0 percent GDP growth is still within reach, it is a reasonably good forcecast."

United Overseas Bank economist Hoe Woei Chen said September was lower than her projection of 15.5 percent growth.

The performance of the biomedical sector "was a bit disappointing" she said, but added she was keeping her forecast of 2004 GDP growth at 8.4 percent.

She said biomedical sector production could pick up in the next couple of months after lagging export growth over the past two months.

Hoe also said electronics growth is expected to slow but this just reflects global demand trends.

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