SINGAPORE: Singapore’s key non-oil domestic exports unexpectedly fell in September as a recent rally in electronics shipments unraveled and pharmaceuticals exports continued to fall.
Exports of goods made in Singapore fell 1.1% in September compared with a year earlier, after a revised 16.7% gain in August, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said Tuesday. The median estimate of five economists in a poll by The Wall Street Journal was for September exports to expand 12.7% from a year earlier. None of the analysts had expected a contraction and two had predicted that exports would grow faster than in August. Compared with the previous month, exports fell 11% in seasonally adjusted terms, after expanding 4.2% on month in August. The poll had projected exports to stay at the same level in September as in August. The city-state’s shipments to China, its biggest export destination, rose 9.6% in September from a year earlier, compared with a 43.2% gain in the previous month, IE Singapore said.
Exports to the European Union fell 8.9% on year after a 23.1% gain in August. Exports to the U.S., however, grew 6.4% after the previous month’s 3.9% increase. Electronics exports declined 7.9% on year, reversing a 20.8% gain in August, while non-electronics shipments grew a tepid 1.9%, compared with a 15% rise in the previous month. Within the non-electronics sector, pharmaceutical exports fell 36%, worse than a 9.1% fall in the previous month.
