Covid-19 pandemic knocks Singapore into recession with record 41.2% GDP plunge

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc across export-reliant Asian nations, Singapore's trade-reliant economy plunged into recession last quarter as an extended lockdown shuttered businesses and decimated retail spending. Gross domestic product (GDP) dived by a record 41.2 per cent in the three months ended March, on a quarter-on-quarter annualised basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement Tuesday. Compared with a year earlier, GDP fell 12.6 per cent in the second quarter, versus a survey median of -10.5 per cent. That was worse than economists' expectations for a 37.4% decline in the quarter when Singapore was under lockdown to curb the spread of...