Container ships and bulk carriers are seen behind the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino on Monday, February 19, 2024, offshore Singapore.
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Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports fell 20.7% in March from a year earlier, down sharply from the revised 0.2% decline in February.
The 20.7% drop was significantly smaller than expected, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a 7% drop. This is Singapore’s largest drop in non-oil domestic exports since January 2023.
From a month-on-month perspective, non-oil domestic exports fell by 8.4%, which was also higher than Reuters’ forecast of 4.5%.
Enterprise Singapore, the government’s business development agency, said the downturn was due to a drop in exports of non-electronic goods, including pharmaceutical exports. Exports of electronic products fell by 9.4%, and exports of non-electronic products fell by 23.2%.
Non-oil domestic exports to Singapore’s main markets fell in March, particularly exports to the United States, the European Union and Japan. However, exports to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan increased.
Enterprise Singapore said non-oil domestic exports were worth S$13 billion in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from S$14.2 billion in February and the 2023 average of S$14.5 billion.
Singapore’s total trade volume fell by 1.8% year-on-year in March, after growing by 3.5% in the previous month. Exports fell by 3.4%, and imports also fell by 0.1%.
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