Singapore, Jan 2 (IANS): Singapore's economy grew 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, the authorities said Thursday.

The trade and industry ministry said that the growth was slower than the 5.9 percent year-on-year growth in the third quarter, reported Xinhua.

The full-year growth for 2013 is estimated to be 3.7 percent, a figure revealed earlier by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his New Year message.

The official forecast at the beginning of the year was 1-3 percent. It was later revised to 2.5-3.5 percent following stronger than expected growth in the second quarter thanks to the manufacturing sector.

It was then further revised to 3.5-4 percent .

Lee said the Singapore economy is expected to grow by 2-4 percent in 2014.

The manufacturing sector in the fourth quarter expanded by 3.5 percent year-on-year, compared with 5.3 percent in the third quarter.

The slower growth was due to a contraction in biomedical manufacturing output and slower growth in the transport engineering output.

The construction sector grew 4.7 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, down from 5.8 percent in the preceding quarter.

Services grew 5.5 percent, down from 6.5 percent in the previous quarter.