Preliminary data showing 7.3 percent annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and robust March export numbers indicate the economic recovery has very solid foundations, they said.

With GDP projected to grow by as much as 7.5 percent, Singapore looks set to have one of the highest growth rates in the region outside Asian giants India and China, whose economies are sizzling hot at the near 10-percent mark.

"I will expect Singapore to be among the top performers this year in terms of GDP -- the other two countries being Malaysia and Thailand," said regional economist Song Seng Wun of G.K. Goh brokerage.

Song has possibly the highest forecast for Singapore's GDP this year at 7.5 percent, with others projecting the economy to expand between six and seven percent.

Malaysia and Thailand are targetting GDP growth of seven percent or higher, while Hong Kong expects between six and seven percent.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) finance ministers who met here this month said the region is poised to grow by up to 5.9 percent this year, the highest rate since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

For Singapore, it has been a hard climb.

The economy crashed from nearly 10 percent growth in 2000 to shrink by 2.4 percent in 2001 when a US-led global slowdown precipitated the city-state's worst-ever recession.

A nascent recovery in 2002 was nipped in the bud by the fallout from the war against Iraq and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) crisis, which killed 33 people out of 238 infections here in the first half of 2003. GDP expanded a mere 1.1 percent that year.

In the latest economic data released Friday, non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose 17.1 percent in March from the previous year on the continued strong showing by electronics and pharmaceuticals shipments.

"Overall, this reaffirms the recovery story and boosts optimism that we will probably see an upside surprise to the full-year growth," said United Overseas Bank economist Low Ping Yee.