Singapore: Export growth strengthens considerably at the beginning of the year
Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose 13.0% in annual terms in January, significantly above December’s soft 3.1% increase and surprising market analysts on the upside. The result confirmed that the city state’s economy is continuing to benefit from robust global demand.
January’s reading was driven by rising demand from the United States, the EU and Japan. On the other hand, exports toward Taiwan and Thailand declined. Looking at the sector-by-sector picture, exports of non-electronic products jumped 20.7% in January, following a much softer 6.8% increase in December. Meanwhile, exports of electronic goods continued to contract, dropping 3.9% in January, following December’s 5.3% decline, due to lower exports of PCs, ICs and disk drivers.
On a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, exports dipped 0.3% in January, a softer contraction than the 1.9% decrease in the previous month.