Singapore appears to be emerging from its worst recession on record after official figures showed the economy soared 20.4% between April and June.

新加坡官方统计数据显示自四月至六月，其经济已经从最坏的萧条中摆脱出来。

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Singapore had seen a year of economic contraction

The rapid expansion, as measured on an annualised（年度的） basis（基础，根据）, compares with the record contraction of 19.7% seen between January and March.

Lifted by increased drug sales and construction activity, it was the first quarterly expansion in a year.

However, the government still expects the economy to contract for the year.

The government now predicts the economy will decline between 4% and 6% for 2009 as a whole, less than its earlier estimate of a 6% and 9% contraction.

Cautious

Despite the sharp economic expansion in the second quarter, the government said it remained cautious due to the continuing fragile global economy.

The Ministry² of Trade and Industry, which released the latest figures, said the economic growth between April and June "may not be sustained".

Analyst³ David Cohen, of research group Action Economics, said he now expected other East Asian nations to also release upbeat（乐观的） economic figures for April to June.

"Maybe this will provide some reassurance⁴ to the markets which have been jittery⁵（神经过敏的，战战兢兢的） in the last few weeks about the sustainability（承受） of the recovery," he said.

"It shows that Asian economies have turned the corner in the second quarter."