SINGAPORE - Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) in August increased 17 per cent year on year, as growth accelerated from July and expanded for a fourth straight month on both electronic and non-electronic sales.
August's expansion also beat forecasts from analysts who tipped Nodx to rise 11.8 per cent, according to a Bloomberg poll.
Said IG market strategist Pan Jingyi: "Singapore's Nodx has surprised significantly on the upside. August's data marks the strongest Nodx growth in six months and a boon for the local Straits Times Index which has seen waning momentum since August."
Ms Selena Ling, OCBC Bank's head of treasury research & strategy, said, "Nodx growth was a stellar 9.9 per cent year on year for the first eight months of 2017, and should be on track to achieve our full-year growth forecast of 7.4 per cent."
This would top the Government's forecast of 5 to 6 per cent Nodx growth for 2017.
Shipments expanded 7.6 per cent year on year in July, revised down from an earlier estimate of 8.5 per cent, according to the report on Monday (Sept 18) from trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.
On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis, shipments were up 4.5 per cent, after falling 3.3 per cent in July. The level of Nodx reached S$14.7 billion in August, higher than the S$14.1 billion in the previous month.
On a year-on-year basis, electronic Nodx surged by 21.7 per cent in August, following the 15.3 per cent growth in July and topping forecast for 15 per cent growth.
Growth was led by integrated circuits or chips (ICs), disk media products and parts of ICs, which increased by 36.8 per cent, 13.3 per cent and 44.8 per cent respectively.
Non-electronic products did well too, rising by 15 per cent, much better than the 4.4 per cent growth in the previous month. Non-monetary gold, petrochemicals and specialised machinery increased by 137.7 per cent, 31.9 per cent and 44.9 per cent respectively, contributing the most to the expansion.
Shipments to the majority of Singapore's top export markets rose in August, led by China, Hong Kong (+41.9 per cent) and South Korea (+62 per cent).
Nodx to China expanded by 43.2 per cent in August 2017, following the previous month's 19.6 per cent growth, led by non-monetary gold, petrochemicals (+35.8 per cent) and ICs (+41.8 per cent).
