SINGAPORE, June 18 — Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 15.9 per cent year-on-year in May, the biggest drop since March 2016, partly due to a sharp decline in shipments to China, official data showed yesterday.
The drop was slightly smaller than the 16.5 per cent decline predicted by economists in a Reuters poll, but more than the 10 per cent fall seen in April as the city-state's economy continues to struggle amid weak global growth.
Mr Jeff Ng, economist at Continuum Economics, noted that Singapore mostly exports finished products to China, and presently Chinese demand for such products was low.
On a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, exports grew 6.2 per cent, accelerating from the 0.6 per cent decline the month before, data from the trade agency Enterprise Singapore showed.
This was better than the 4.9 per cent increase predicted by economists.
Last month Singapore cut its 2019 economic growth forecast to 1.5-2.5 per cent after expansion fell to its lowest in a decade in the first quarter, hit by a contraction in manufacturing in the wake of the China-US trade dispute.
"(Trade tensions) certainly affected confidence. It's not necessarily the main determinant of weaker growth, but it has affected businesses confidence," Ng said. — TODAY
