Singapore's export performance contracts again in January

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX), a key gauge of the export performance of the small and highly open economy, dropped 3.3 percent on year in January, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said on Monday. The decrease reversed the rise of 6 percent during in the previous month, due to a decline in electronic NODX which outweighed the rise in non-electronic NODX. On a yearly basis, the electronic NODX contracted by 17.0 percent in January, accelerating the decline of 3.1 percent last December. On the other hand, the non-electronic NODX expanded by 3. 5 percent during the same period, following the 10.6 percent increase in the previous month. The NODX to markets such as the Chinese mainland, the European Union, the U.S. and Indonesia saw gains, but falls were recorded for other top ten export markets. Exports to the Chinese mainland grew double-digit 15.3 percent, and exports to the European Union, the U.S. and Indonesia rose respectively by 9.5 percent, 5.3 percent and 5.0 percent on year. The top three contributors to the NODX contraction in January were China's Hong Kong, China's Taiwan and South Korea. On a month-on-month basis, exports fell 5.0 percent in January, compared to the previous month's 6.3 percent expansion, due to declines in both electronic and non-electronic NODX.