SINGAPORE: Singapore’s exports fell more than expected in June, marking their biggest decline in six years, as it struggles against tepid global demand and the Sino-US trade war.
The grim trade numbers add to a slew of weak economic data and reinforce economists’ expectations that the central bank could ease monetary policy at its October meeting.
Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 17.3 per cent in June, marking the fourth straight month of year-on-year decline, data from trade agency Enterprise Singapore showed on Wednesday (Jul 17).
This was worse than the 9.9 per cent contraction predicted by 10 economists in a Reuters poll, and the biggest decline since February 2013 when exports fell 33.2 per cent from the year before, Refinitiv Eikon data show.
“It’s everything bad coming together. You have a global economic slowdown, a trade war and a Chinese slowdown,” said OCBC economist Selena Ling.
