Key exports grew 5.4 per cent in March, worse than expected and lower than the 7.5 per cent rise in February. - ST
SINGAPORE: Growth in Singapore’s key exports slowed in March ahead of the global trade chaos sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariff barrage.
Enterprise Singapore noted it is “actively monitoring the evolving tariff situation and will adjust the Nodx forecast for 2025 as necessary to reflect the changing market conditions”.
The trade agency had said in February that non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) are expected to rise by 1 per cent to 3 per cent in 2025, after eking out 0.2 per cent growth in 2024.
For March, Nodx grew 5.4 per cent year on year, worse than expected and lower than the 7.5 per cent increase in February, according to figures released by EnterpriseSG on April 17.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast growth of 14.1 per cent.
Electronic exports rose 11.9 per cent year on year – though this was from a low base a year ago. Growth was underpinned by personal computers, disk media products and integrated circuits.
Non-electronics exports grew 3.8 per cent – half the pace of February’s revised 7.7 per cent increase.
Non-monetary gold led the charge with a 64.7 per cent expansion, while pharmaceuticals rose by 24.9 per cent.
Nodx to Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea grew, though shipments to China – Singapore’s single largest export market – declined.
The main drag on Nodx was China, which saw a 29.4 per cent drop in shipments versus a 27.4 per cent plunge in January.
Shipments to the United States grew 5.7 per cent in March, a sharp drop from the 21.5 per cent growth in February.
Exports to Taiwan rose by 45.7 per cent in March, following the 77.9 per cent expansion the month before owing to specialised machinery, measuring instruments and integrated circuits.
Shipments to Indonesia expanded by 63 per cent in March, after the 5.4 per cent decline in the month earlier. Growth was underpinned by structures of ships and boats, personal computers and non-monetary gold.
Nodx to South Korea rose by 21.6 per cent in March, after the 31.4 per cent growth in the preceding month owing to specialised machinery, measuring instruments and integrated circuits.
Compared with a year earlier, total trade rose 3.4 per cent in March, following a 4.6 per cent expansion in February. - The Straits Times/ANN
