SINGAPORE: Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) contracted for the eighth consecutive month in May, falling by 14.7 per cent, with both electronics and non-electronics seeing a decline.
The drop follows the 9.8 per cent decrease in April and an 8.3 per cent contraction in March.
The latest figure is worse than a Reuters poll forecast of an 8.1 per cent drop.
According to data released by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) on Friday (Jun 16), electronic product exports contracted by 27.2 per cent in May, following a 23.3 per cent decline in the previous month.
Integrated circuits (ICs), disk media products and parts of ICs contributed the most to the decline, falling by 39.2 per cent, 41.6 per cent and 48.7 per cent respectively.
Non-electronic exports also declined by 10.7 per cent in May, following a 5.8 per cent drop in April.
The biggest declines were in specialised machinery, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals – falling by 23.4 per cent, 22.8 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
“NODX to the top markets as a whole declined in May 2023, though NODX to China and the US rose,” said EnterpriseSG.
NODX to the United States (4.8 per cent) and China (3.7 per cent) rose in May but declined for key markets Hong Kong (-41.2 per cent), Malaysia (-26.2 per cent) and Taiwan (-19.4 per cent).
On a year-on-year basis, total trade declined by 17.9 per cent in May, following the 18.9 per cent contraction in the previous month.
Both exports and imports fell, by 15.2 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively.
In April, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) left its monetary policy unchanged, pausing a series of tightening moves since October 2021 to tackle rising inflation.
The central bank flagged the risk of a “deeper than anticipated” slowdown in the Singapore economy amid higher risks to global growth.