Singapore’s April non-oil domestic export sales fell 7.9 pct owing to sluggish global demand amid fall in exports of both electronics and non-electronics products. Further, except for Europe and Hong Kong, all major markets reported declined exports, implying the deceased demand in the overseas market.
Electronics exports in April shrank 7.4 pct from a year earlier; while volatile pharmaceuticals shipments grew 17.9 pct. NODX to Europe climbed 20.6 pct in April on a jump in sales of non-electronic items.
Singapore's electronics sector has been underperforming neighbors such as South Korea and Taiwan on fierce competition, as well as a lack of popular high-tech products such as smart phones.
The biggest concern is that non-oil retained imports of intermediate goods (NORI) have continued to fall. This is the second consecutive month of decline and the extent of moderation has been rather significant. Lower NORI essentially makes for lower export values later on, DBS reported.
Manufacturers and exporters are still struggling with weak demand and this will eventually manifest itself in the headline GDP growth figures.
“While this is an improvement from the 15.7 per cent plunge in the previous month, it's premature to call the bottom at this juncture,” said Irvin Seah, Senior Economist, DBS.
Last month, the Monetary Authority of Singapore unexpectedly eased its exchange-rate based monetary policy as growth stalled in the first quarter. Exports to China, Singapore's top overseas market, fell 7.4 percent in April from a year earlier, after declining 14.0 pct in March. Sales to the United States slumped 7.0 pct last month on-year, compared with March's 6.2 pct contraction, Reuters reported.
“The trade outlook for the region remains quite lackluster so we think this NODX slump could drag into the second quarter,” said Selena Ling, an economist at OCBC Bank.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com