Singapore's June exports fall steeper than forecast

Ships and containers in Keppel Harbour, Singapore. — Bloomberg

SINGAPORE: Singapore's non-oil domestic exports in June fell 8.7% from the same month a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday, weighed down mainly by weakness in non-electronic products.

The decline compared with a Reuters poll forecast of a 1.2% drop, and followed a downwardly revised 0.7% contraction in May.

Maybank economist Chua Hak Bin said Singapore's port congestion and the logjam from the Red Sea crisis may be dampening the export recovery since manufacturing and electronics sentiment suggest demand remains healthy.

"The disruption may persist for a few months, but may imply some pent-up demand and catching up in export volumes by late third quarter," Chua said.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, non-oil domestic exports decreased by 0.4% in June.

Enterprise Singapore's seasonally adjusted data showed the value of non-oil exports at S$13.8 billion ($10.3 billion) in June, level with May and down from S$14.4 billion in June 2023.

The government said the decline was mainly due to non-electronic exports, "primarily, volatile products like non-monetary gold".

Non-electronic products in June fell 8.7% from a year earlier.

Non-oil exports to Singapore's top markets declined as a whole in June. The largest was the 41.9% annual contraction in exports to Hong Kong, after growth of 73.4% in May, due to lower shipments of non-monetary gold, integrated circuits and measuring instruments. - Reuters