Singapore sees drop in exports

Singapore (VNA) - Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) reached just 12.6 billion SGD (nearly 9.7 billion USD) in July, a year-on-year drop of 10.6 percent, reported the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore on August 17.

The decline, due to a decrease in exports of both electronic and non-electronic products, was much higher than economists’ predict at 2.5 percent, and also higher than a 2.4 percent decrease in the previous month, according to the IE.

It said electronic goods exports plunged 12.9 percent in July due to a drop in major products such as PCs and PC parts, and components such as diodes and transistors. Meanwhile, non-electronic products saw a 9.5 percent reduction over the same period last year, resulting from a downturn in exports of petrochemicals, civil engineering equipment parts and specialised machinery.

Notably, the IE revealed that NODX to all of the top 10 markets, except the EU, decreased in July 2016. The highest drop was seen in the Indonesian market with 22.6 percent, following by the US at 19.1 percent, and China, 16.6 percent.

Total trade turnover between Singapore and other countries also fell 11.1 percent to 68.9 billion SGD (about 53 billion USD) in July following a decline of 5.1 percent in the previous month.

Its exports also plummeted 10.3 percent to 37.3 billion SGD (nearly 28.7 billion USD, while import value dropped 12.1 percent to 31.6 billion SGD (over 24.3 billion USD).

Economists held that Singapore will continue facing difficulties in export due to the slow-down of the Chinese and US economies as well as the instability in the EU, together with impacts from the low price of goods and fuel worldwide.

However, analysts still hoped that the country’s recent recovery in production after 18 consecutive months of decrease is a good signal for its export in the next months.-VNA