Singapore's exports fall 4.5% in May, after three months of growth

SINGAPORE – After seeing unexpected growth in the previous month, Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 4.5 per cent year-on-year in May, mainly due to declines in the petrochemicals sector.

This reversed three straight months of expansion, with total trade contracting 25 per cent in May, according to official data released on Wednesday (Jun 17).

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX decreased by 4.5 per cent, continuing a second month of decline after the previous month’s 5.1 per cent contraction.

The 8.8 per cent decrease in May’s non-electronic domestic exports outweighed the 12.5 per cent growth seen by the electronics sector.

Petrochemicals fell by 31.2 per cent, forming about 60 per cent of May’s overall NODX decline, due to the decrease in domestic exports to India, China and Indonesia.

Food preparations and non-electric engines and motors, which fell 24.5 per cent and 55 per cent respectively, also contributed to the decline in non-electronic NODX.

The expansion in the electronics NODX was buoyed by increases in ICs, disk media products and disk drives exports.

Total exports fell 23.9 per cent in May, while imports fell 26.2 per cent.

Exports to Singapore’s top 10 markets grew in May, though exports to the EU, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand declined. The US, Japan and Taiwan contributed the most to the NODX growth.  CNA

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