Growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was driven mainly by the 11.5 percent year-on-year expansion in the key manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.

The sector accounts for more than a third of the annual gross domestic product of 180 billion Singapore dollars (108 billion US).

Analysts had forecast quarterly growth between 6.5 and seven percent for Southeast Asia's wealthiest economy.

"The Singapore economy continued to record robust growth in the fourth quarter of 2005," the ministry said in its preliminary estimate, computed largely from data in the first two months of the quarter and subject to review.

"Buoyed by strong expansion in the biomedical, transport engineering, and electronics cluster, the manufacturing sector is estimated to have grown at 11.5 percent," it said.