Brunei Darussalam's economy in 2017 grew by 1.3 per cent after a 2.5 percent decline in 2016. The overall growth was achieved after the Gross Domestic Product in last year's 4th quarter expanded by 5.2 percent year-on-year.

The economic growth of 5.2 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2017 was mainly driven by external demand (in exports of goods and services) which rose by 18.6 percent, after a 8.7 percent decline in the previous quarter. The domestic demand also registered positive growth, particularly in capital expenditure of the private sector, which continued to grow by 44.9 percent, after a 2.5 percent growth in Q3 2017.

On the supply side, the year-on-year positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 was contributed primarily by the Industrial Sector which recorded a further growth of 9.1 per cent. This performance was buoyed mainly by the Manufacture of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Methanol Sector with a 30.9 per cent growth. This was followed by the Construction Sector growing by 15.0 per cent, Electricity and Water which expanded by 11.0 per cent, and Oil and Gas Mining expanded by 3.2 per cent in line with the increase in the natural gas production by 20.5 per cent

The Services Sector on the other hand recorded a contraction of 0.5 per cent year-on-year. The decline was mainly due to Government Services which decreased by 4.1 per cent and Education Services by 7.9 per cent. Conversely, the Water Transport Sector registered a significant increase of 25.2 per cent, which corresponded with the growth in LNG exports.

The Agriculture, Forestry & Fishery Sector also decreased by 6.6 per cent due to a fall in the output of the Forestry and Fishery sectors. The decline in the production of round timber and bakau poles led to the decrease in the Forestry sector; while the Fishery sector was affected by a fall in the activity of the capture industry. On the positive side, Livestock and Poultry increased by 0.4 percent.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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