In the meantime, non-electronic NODX slumped 9.5 percent in July year-on-year, after a 2.6-percent decline in June.
Advertisement
The downturn in exports mirror Singapore’s weak container volumes, which fell 5.2 per cent in the first half of 2016 from a year earlier with some container yards empty.
Private-sector economists have expressed expectation that the economy would bounce back in the last six months of the year, but now – given July’s numbers – they are not so sure it will.
Yesterday’s trade data from IE Singapore bore this out.
A worsening global economy stifled demand for products in the Republic’s biggest export markets, leaving Singapore’s exporters struggling in choppy waters.
Yesterday, the government’s trade promotion body International Enterprise Singapore released data showing that the city-state’s non-oil domestic exports fell 10.6 percent year-on-year in July.
July’s NODX did better month on month, dipping a seasonally-adjusted 1.8 per cent after a 13 per cent crash in June.
Central banks in the region, including South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia, have already cut interest rates in recent months, and analysts see more cuts in the months ahead.
ANZ’s Ng Weiwen said the impact of Brexit, at least for the time being, has been marginal for Singapore; NODX shipments to the European Union actually rose 3.0 per cent year-on-year.
NODX to China decreased by 16.6 percent in July, following the previous month’s contraction of 9.9 percent, led by petrochemicals, primary chemicals and specialised machinery.
The “slowdown in China is the main concern but sluggish growth in the U.S. and uncertainties surrounding the Eurozone are not helping”, Seah said. The top contributors to the NODX contraction were China, the USA and Indonesia. In contrast, re-exports of non-electronic products rose 4.1 per cent, following a 1.6 per cent increase in the previous month. The contraction was due to PCs (-36.0 per cent), parts of ICs (-46.3 per cent) and diodes & transistors (-19.5 per cent).
Advertisement
He noted that economic growth figures across the region were being dialled down, posing a threat to Singapore’s own growth forecast, which stands at between 1 per cent and 2 per cent for the full year.
