Singapore Exports Drop More Than Estimated on Electronics

When it rains it pours; more bad news from the Straits of Singapore.

Singapore's exports fell more than economists estimated in August as shipments of electronics dropped and companies sold fewer goods to Europe.

Non-oil domestic exports slid 10.6 percent from a year earlier, after a revised 5.7 percent increase in July, the trade promotion agency said in a statement today. The decline exceeded all 15 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey, where the median was for a 4 percent drop.

Singapore's electronics shipments by companies such as Venture Corp. fell 11 percent in August from a year earlier, after climbing 2 percent the previous month.

Europe's protracted debt crisis, a U.S. jobless rate stuck above 8 percent and a slowdown in China are damping demand for Asian goods and commodities. Singapore's exports may rise 4.2 percent in 2012, a central bank survey of economists released last week showed, compared with a 5.6 percent gain predicted in June.

“I don't think there is a sharp turnaround shortly in sight,” Selena Ling, a Singapore-based economist at Oversea- Chinese Banking Corp., said before the report. Exports may only recover in 2013, she said.

Singapore's electronics shipments by companies such as Venture Corp. fell 11 percent in August from a year earlier, after climbing 2 percent the previous month.

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, decreased 10.4 percent. Petrochemicals exports gained 1.3 percent, while pharmaceutical shipments slid 3.2 percent after rising 1.3 percent in July.

Singapore's non-oil exports fell a seasonally adjusted 9.1 percent last month from July, when they dropped 3.6 percent, today's report showed.

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Via: Bloomberg