Singapore’s industrial production rose at the slowest pace in four months as electronics and pharmaceutical manufacturers capped output amid easing orders.

Manufacturing, which accounts for about a quarter of the economy, climbed 9% in December from a year earlier after a revised 40.5% increase in November, the Economic Development Board said in a statement today. The median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 16.8% gain. Production grew 29.7% in 2010.

Singapore’s exports are forecast by the government to grow in 2011 at about a third of the pace last year, when overseas shipments jumped the most since 2003. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government expects economic growth to slow this year after a record 14.7% expansion in 2010, dimming the outlook for companies such as Venture Corp., the island’s biggest publicly traded electronics contract manufacturer.

 

“New orders and production are declining while inventory and stock levels are building up, suggesting that the manufacturing sector could be in for a soft patch ahead,” Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings in Singapore, said before the report, citing purchasing managers’ indices.

 

Singapore exports rose about 23% in 2010, according to Bloomberg’s calculation using previously reported data. The government forecasts overseas shipments will climb as much as 8% this year.

 

Production in the fourth quarter rose 25.5%, less than the government’s preliminary estimate earlier this month of 28.2%, suggesting revised gross domestic product data to be released in February may show the economy performed worse than previously reported.

 

Industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 11.8% in December from November, when it gained a revised 1.8% from the previous month, today’s report showed.

 

Electronics production increased 9% from a year earlier after rising a revised 25% in November. Pharmaceutical output gained 3.3%.