According to the bank, the drop reflects a worse-than-anticipated Q2 GDP outturn, mainly due to a sharp reduction of services sector output, especially education. Accommodation and restaurants (tourism) contracted by 83.3 per cent , subtracting 0.9 percentage points from overall GDP growth. Transport and storage services contracted by 11.6 per cent, and wholesale and retail trade activity by 6.9 per cent over the same horizon, also contributing to the services sector contraction. As a result, accommodation and food services’ contribution to GDP shrunk to negative 0.5 percentage points. The cumulative contribution (for the three key sub-sectors) declined to -0.7 percentage points from about one percentage point (or approximately 0.3 percentage points of lost output).

Source: The Star November 26, 2020 00:56 UTC