| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE - Singapore's key exports fell more than expected in December from a year ago, as recession-hit US and European consumers bought fewer goods from the city-state, the government said Friday.
Non-oil domestic exports tumbled 20.8 per cent, faster than the 17.5 per cent decline in November and worse than the average 20 per cent slide tipped by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
It was the eighth straight month of contraction for the NODX, a closely watched barometer of the health of Singapore's open, trade-driven economy.
Key exports were worth S$10.47 billion in December. Exports to all of Singapore's top 10 markets declined, with the exception of Japan.
Exports to the European Union fell 34 per cent while those to neighbouring Malaysia dropped 26 per cent. Shipments to the United States fell 24 per cent.
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, key exports declined 13 per cent in December.
Total trade dropped 18.7 per cent to S$58.93 billion.
David Cohen, of research house Action Economics, said exports are likely to fall further as the global economy worsens.
"Hope is still that things will bottom out by the end of the first half but there's just no guarantee, so the markets remain understandably nervous," he said.
Standard Chartered economist Alvin Liew said: "This is likely to be the most painful year in terms of external demand collapsing."
Singapore became the first Asian economy to fall into recession in the third quarter of last year.
The government has said the economy could contract by as much as two per cent this year after growing 1.5 per cent last year, sharply down from the 7.7 per cent expansion in 2007.
- AFP/yb/ir
|
