Singapore’s economy expanded more than economists estimated last quarter, averting a recession even after the central bank refrained from monetary stimulus as it sought to contain elevated inflation.

Gross domestic product rose an annualized 1.8 percent in the three months to Dec. 31 from the previous period, when it contracted a revised 6.3 percent, the Trade Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. The median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 1.6 percent expansion. The economy grew 1.2 percent last year, less than a quarter of 2011’s pace.

The World Bank last month raised its outlook for emerging nations in East Asia, citing a recovery in China. The expansion in Singapore, among the first in Southeast Asia to report GDP numbers for last quarter, signals the region may follow in reporting resilient growth as the global recovery quickens.

“If there’s any plus, we can say, one year down the road, and despite the fiscal cliff, the U.S. economy is in a slightly more stable growth trajectory,” Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Research Pte in the city state, said before the report. “The Chinese economy looks to be in a slightly firmer growth track.”
 
(Bloomberg)