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SINGAPORE: Singapore said Monday its key exports shrank 8.5 per cent in July from the year before but at a slower pace as hopes grew that the economy was emerging from a deep recession.
Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) dipped for the 15th consecutive month, but July's shrinkage was slower than the 11.1 per cent decline in June and beat a 10 per cent fall projected by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
The news came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his annual television address to the nation late Sunday that the economy was stabilising but cautioned it was not out of the woods yet.
"For the third quarter, it is not likely to have massive retrenchments. Beyond that, the situation is not clear and we need to be mentally prepared," he said.
He said in the long term he was optimistic, adding that although times ahead would still be tough "we can see some hope and some green shoots."
His comments followed data that Singapore was clawing out of the recession, with the trade-reliant economy expanding by a seasonally adjusted 20.7 per cent in the June quarter from the previous three months.
It was the first quarter-on-quarter growth in five quarters.
But the government said gross domestic product is still expected to decline 4-6 per cent this year from 2008 which would be Singapore's worst economic contraction since independence 44 years ago.
Exports to the United States, Singapore's single biggest market, tumbled 24 per cent, steeper than the 5.3 per cent decline in June, the government's trade promotion body International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said.
However, shipments to the European Union rose 9.4 per cent to reverse June's 36 per cent decline, IE Singapore said.
Shipments to China fell at a faster pace of 13.0 per cent from 9.1 per cent in June, while exports to Japan declined 17 per cent, compared with a 22 per cent fall in the preceding month.
Key electronics exports dropped 14.5 per cent, much narrower than the 21.6 per cent decline in June, while pharmaceuticals shipments soared 56 per cent from its 1.1 per cent rise in June.
- AFP/yb
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