Singapore's manufacturing output dropped unexpectedly for a second consecutive month in April, dragged by weaker biomedical and electronics production, according to statistics released on Friday by the Economic Development Board.

The manufacturing output dropped by 0.3% year on year in April. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, it dropped by 3.5%.

Market economists had expected the manufacturing output to grow.

The Economic Development Board said the drop in manufacturing output was mainly due to a year-on-year decline of 12.5% in the electronics sector.

Output from the biomedical manufacturing cluster fell 4.2%. The medical technology segment expanded 15.9% in April thanks to higher export demand, but the pharmaceutical production fell by 7.6%.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, the output increased by 0.5%.

The transport engineering cluster expanded by 29.1% year on year, led mainly by growth from the marine and offshore engineering segment. The precision engineering cluster increased 2. 7%, while output of the general manufacturing cluster grew 2%.