SINGAPORE, April 14 (Reuters) - Singapore's economy contracted a record 11.5 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2009, more than a market median forecast of an 8.8 percent slump, the government's preliminary data showed on Tuesday.
The country's gross domestic product in the first three months of the year fell at a seasonally adjusted, annualised pace of 19.7 percent, the ministry of trade said. In the fourth quarter, the city state's economy contracted 4.2 percent from a year earlier and slumped 16.4 percent in annualised terms.
Singapore also revised downward its outlook for 2009 and now expects GDP to contract by 6 to 9 percent compared with the previous forecast for the economy to shrink by 2-5 percent.
Data released separately on Tuesday showed that non-oil exports in March fell 17 percent from a year earlier to S$11.9 billion ($7.9 billion). March exports rose a seasonally adjusted and annualised 10.8 percent from the previous month after a revised 1.6 percent increase in February. (Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)