SINGAPORE - Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in Singapore resumed their slide in October after two months of decline, as a decline in electronic shipments outweighed the increase on the non-electronic side.
On a year-on-year basis, NODX shrank 0.5 per cent last month, reversing from their brief 0.3 per cent rise in September, and resuming the declines seen in July and August, according to figures from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore released on Tuesday (Nov 17).
However, October's NODX decline was far below the median 3 per cent fall expected by analysts polled by Reuters. And on a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX rose by 1.1 per cent from September. NODX reached S$13.8 billion in October, higher than September's S$13.7 billion
Source: IE Singapore
On a year-on-year basis, NODX to all of Singapore's top 10 markets - except for Japan, the European Union and Hong Kong - contracted in October, with blame largely falling on China, Taiwan and South Korea.
NODX to China, Singapore's top market, fell 8.7 per cent last month, following the previous month's decrease of 12.9 per cent, led by pumps (-96.8 per cent), specialised machinery (-23.1 per cent) and disk media products (-13.1 per cent). Shipments to the US, its third largest market, slipped by a smaller 2.2 per cent, after a 9.4 per cent fall in September.
Source: IE Singapore
Total exports of electronic goods fell 3.2 per cent in October, in contrast to the 5.7 per cent rise in the previous month. The contraction was largely due to integrated circuits (ICs) (-7.4 per cent), parts of ICs (-32.2 per cent) and parts of PCs (-12.2 per cent).
Non-electronic shipments grew by 0.7 per cent last month, after a 1.9 per cent decline in September, led by pharmaceuticals (+44.6 per cent), non-electric engines & motors (+192.2 per cent) and aircraft parts (+29.1 per cent).
On a year-on-year basis, non-oil re-exports (NORX) increased by 6.6 per cent in October, in contrast to the 0.4 per cent decline in the previous month.
For the full year, IE Singapore expects export growth to come in at between 1 and 2 per cent year-on-year.
