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