Singapore Non-Oil exports slide 7.9% in April

Singapore's exports in April shrank from a year earlier for a second straight month, although the pace of contraction slowed from the three-year low hit in March. 
Non-oil domestic exports slid 7.9% in April from a year earlier as both electronic and non-electronic shipments fell, said trade agency International Enterprise Singapore on Tuesday. 
In March, overseas sales sank 15.7% on-year, its worst performance since February 2013, weighed by shipments to China, the United States and Europe. 
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX increased by 4.5% in April, after the previous month's 0.1% growth, due to the expansion in non-electronic sales and the flat growth in electronic shipments. 
Such a gain, however, would not indicate a sustainable stabilisation in exports, analysts said before the report. Activity in local factories contracted for a 10th consecutive month in April, although a manufacturing index reached its highest level since June, with new orders improving, a survey showed earlier this month. 
On a year on year basis, NODX to all of Singapore's top 10 markets, except the European Union (EU) and Hong Kong, declined in April. The largest contributors to the contraction were Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia. 
Notably, shipments to the EU - Singapore's third top NODX market - swung to a 20.6% on-year increase in April from a 31.9% plunge in March. Sales to China - our top market - fell by 7.4%, bit more thnan half the 14% contraction suffered in March. 
Electronic shipments contracted by 7.4% in April, less than the 9.1% fall in the previous month. The decline was largely due to PCs (-21.6%), parts of PCs (-23.4%) and ICs (-3.4%). 
Non-electronic exports fell 8.1% after the 18.0% tumble in March. The decrease was led by structures of ships & boats (-94.3%), petrochemicals (-16.7%) and civil engineering equipment parts (-54.0%).