SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's economy grew less than expected in the third quarter from the previous three months on an annualised basis, but avoided slipping into a technical recession, preliminary data showed on Monday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.6% in the July-September quarter from the previous quarter on an anualised and seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement, compared with a revised 2.7% contraction the quarter before.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected growth of 1.5%. [nL3N26S0MR]
The standard technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. The last time Singapore entered a recession was in the first quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis.
Compared with a year earlier, GDP grew 0.1% in the third quarter, slightly below the 0.2% expansion forecast in a Reuters poll and unchanged from the quarter earlier.
(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Kim Coghill)