Singapore's exports grow 6% in July, boosted by surge in gold shipments

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew 6 per cent in July from a year ago, beating expectations and bolstered by shipments of non-monetary gold, specialised machinery, pharmaceuticals and electronics.

The latest data from Enterprise Singapore on Monday (Aug 17)  is a drop from June's revised 13.9 per cent increase, but higher than the 4.3% expansion forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX rose by 1.2 per cent in July after a 1.4 per cent fall in June.

In June, electronic shipments rose by 2.8 per cent from a year earlier. This was boosted by exports of disk media products, which rose 23 per cent; telecommunications equipment, which increased 18.2 per cent; and integrated circuits, which expanded 1.5 per cent.

Non-electronic exports, which rose 6.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis, were helped by demand for non-monetary gold, specialised machinery and pharmaceuticals.

Exports of non-monetary gold grew by 227.9 per cent, specialised machinery at 60.1 per cent and pharmaceuticals at 15.5 per cent.

Shipments to the top 10 markets grew across the board in July, with the exception of Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China and the EU 27.

Exports to United States rose the most by 98.7 per cent, led by demand for non-monetary gold, disk media products and food preparations.

This was followed by South Korea at 56.3 per cent, mainly due to specialised machinery, pharmaceuticals and miscellaneous manufactured articles.

However, NODX to emerging markets fell by 22 per cent. Shipments to the Caribbean fell the most at 56.4 per cent, followed by South Asia at 29.9 per cent and the Middle East at 22.7 per cent. CNA

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