Container ships and bulk carriers behind the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino off the coast of Singapore, Monday February 19, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports plunged 20.7% in March year-on-year, a sharp decline from February’s revised 0.2% decline.
The 20.7% drop far exceeded expectations, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a 7% drop. This is the largest decline in non-oil domestic exports recorded by Singapore since January 2023.
On a monthly basis, domestic non-oil exports fell 8.4%, also more than the 4.5% expected in Reuters forecasts.
The government’s business development agency, Enterprise Singapore, said the crisis was due to a decline in non-electronic exports, including pharmaceutical exports. Exports of electronic products fell by 9.4%, while exports of non-electronic products fell by 23.2%.
Domestic non-oil exports to Singapore’s main markets declined in March, particularly to the United States, the European Union and Japan. However, exports to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have increased.
Enterprise Singapore said that on a seasonally adjusted basis, March’s non-oil domestic exports stood at SG$13 billion, lower than February’s SG$14.2 billion and the 2023 average of 14.5 billions of dollars.
Singapore’s total trade declined 1.8% year-on-year in March, following a 3.5% increase the previous month. Exports fell by 3.4%, while imports also fell by 0.1%.
Reacting to the release, Shena Yue, an economist at Oxford Economics, said in a note that she “remains cautious” about the export outlook, noting that re-exports have boosted growth in recent months while domestic exports have higher value added experienced difficulties. .
Yue also pointed out that as monetary policy remains tight in important export destinations like the US and EU, global growth will remain subdued and weigh on import demand.
“As such, goods exports are unlikely to provide a massive boost to GDP growth this year. [for Singapore],” she says.
