SINGAPORE, May 17 — Non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) posted a surprise contraction last month, against economist’s expectations of an expansion, due to the decline in non-electronic exports which outweighed the growth in electronic exports.

Nodx decreased slightly by 0.7 per cent in April year-on-year, after five consecutive months of growth, a reversal from the 16.5 per cent year-on-year expansion in March, trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said today, ending a growth streak that was the strongest in more than six years.

Economists in a Reuters poll had expected Nodx to expand by 12.4 per cent from a year earlier.

Shipments of non-electronic products contracted 2.9 per cent last month from a year earlier, after the 20.8 per cent expansion the previous month. The decrease was led by pharmaceuticals, non-electric engines & motors and non-monetary gold.

Meanwhile, shipments of electronic products expanded by 4.8 per cent, following the 5.2 per cent expansion the previous month, with contributions led by integrated circuits, personal computer parts and disk media products.

NODX to four out of the top 10 markets — the European Union, Hong Kong, the United States and Japan — declined, outweighing the increases to Taiwan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. — TODAY