Singapore exports rise 18.40%

Singapore exports rise 18.40%

SINGAPORE : Singapore's key non-oil domestic exports rose a better-than-expected 18.40 percent in January compared to the first month of 2002, boosted by gains in pharmaceutical and semiconductor exports, the government said Monday.

The January performance was significantly better than the range of forecasts from analysts polled by financial news service AFX-Asia. The forecast ranged from a contraction of 1.2 percent to a growth of 5.0 percent.

January's performance was also significantly stronger than the 4.4 percent growth seen in December, the government trade body International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said.

Electronics products grew 7.3 percent in January after declining 2.2 percent in December.

"This better performance was largely attributed to healthy increases in exports of integrated circuits, parts of personal computers and transistors," IE Singapore said.

However, the sluggishness in other key products like personal computers, printers and integrated circuit parts offset the gains.

Among non-electronics products, pharmaceutical exports rose 194.40 percent year-on-year, while petrochemical exports rose 31 percent.

Exports to the U.S. rebounded, rising 12 percent following a 2.40 percent decline in December. --AFP