3. Parliamentary replies
Written reply to PQ on Operating Surplus and Business Costs Metrics for Overall Economy and Across Manufacturing and Services Industries from 2016 to 2024
15 October 2025
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Question
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry what are the levels of (a) unit net operating surplus (b) unit gross operating surplus and (c) unit business costs in each year from 2016 to 2024 and in the first half of 2025, when indexed to year 2016, for the (i) overall economy (ii) manufacturing industry (iii) outward-oriented services industry and (iv) domestic-oriented services industry.
Written Answer by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong
The Department of Statistics does not compile data on unit net operating surplus and unit gross operating surplus.
Table 1 presents data on unit business cost (UBC) for the manufacturing and services sectors from 2016 to 2024 and the first half of 2025, indexed to 2016. Data on UBC for the overall economy and a breakdown into the UBC for outward-oriented and domestic-oriented services industries are not available.
Unit Business Cost for Manufacturing and Services Sectors
Index (2016 = 100) | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 1H251 |
Unit Business Cost for Manufacturing | 100.0 | 99.1 | 92.1 | 88.0 | 76.9 | 77.9 | 85.6 | 90.6 | 90.8 | 94.4 |
Unit Business Cost for Services | 100.0 | 101.5 | 103.4 | 104.1 | 107.5 | 115.5 | 124.4 | 118.2 | 123.7 | 120.9 |
Table 1: Unit Business Cost for Manufacturing and Services Sectors
Sources: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry
Note: Data for the first half of 2025 is indexed against the first half of 2016.