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Thu, Sept 17, 2020 – 8:30 AM M.
SINGAPORE’s exports maintained their growth momentum in August, with shipments of electronic and non-electronic goods increasing with a low base effect.
National non-oil exports (NODX) expanded 7.7 percent year-on-year, rebounding from 5.9 percent in July, according to trade data released Thursday.
The preliminary figure from the government agency Enterprise Singapore (ESG) beat the expansion forecast of 3.3 percent from private sector analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
In Singapore’s key electronics group, exports expanded 5.7 percent year-on-year, building on a 2.8 percent increase in the previous month.
Most of the increase in electronics shipments was driven by growth in integrated circuits, 7.1% year-on-year. ESG noted that this change came in a sharp decline in the previous year, during a global downward cycle in the electronics industry.
Otherwise, non-electronic NODXs drove overall growth with an increase of 8.3%, up from 6.9% the previous month.
Non-cash gold exports rose 55.1%, which, according to ESG, came “amid media reports of increased demand for physical gold as a safe-haven asset.”
Meanwhile, specialized machinery grew 25.7% and food preparations 18.9%, changes that ESG attributed to a low base in the prior-year period.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, NODX expanded 10.5 percent to S $ 15.6 billion in August, after growing 1.2 percent in the previous month.
In general, exports to Singapore’s main markets were expansive, led by trade with China, the European Union and the United States.
That was despite declining exports to four of the top 10 destinations: Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.
Singapore’s official forecasters projected last month that the NODX for the full year will grow between 3 and 5 percent year-on-year in 2020.
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