Weak demand from the US and Europe sent Singapore’s exports last month falling for the 18th consecutive month, the government said yesterday.
Non-oil domestic exports, a closely watched barometer of the health of the trade-dependent economy, declined 6.1 percent last month from the same month last year, the trade promotion body International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said.
The drop was worse than the 0.6 percent fall tipped in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts, but was narrower than the revised 7.3 percent contraction in September.
IE Singapore attributed the decrease mainly to subdued demand from the US and the EU — key export markets hammered by the recent global economic downturn.
Exports to the US fell 11 percent, worse than the 4.7 percent drop in September. Shipments of electronics products fell 30 percent as demand for computer chips and disk drives tumbled.
Shipments to the EU were down 22 percent, compared with the 15 percent shrinkage the previous month. Electronics exports to the EU shrank 36 percent.
Chips, disk drives and other components that go into personal computers, mobile phones and other high-tech consumer gadgets are vital Singapore exports.
However, US consumers have been spending less after the world’s biggest economy fell into its worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
While the US economy has clawed its way out of recession, unemployment levels remain high, shooting up to 10.2 percent last month.
The European Commission has said it expected the eurozone economy to expand rather than contract next year, but warned that rising unemployment and public deficits would remain problems for several years.
Singapore’s economy is expected to contract between 2 percent and 2.5 percent this year, smaller than the previous estimate of a 4 percent to 6 percent shrinkage.
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