Singapore May non-oil exports jump 15.5%

Singapore May non-oil exports jump 15.5%

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore's non-oil domestic exports, a key measure of the economy's performance, jumped a nominal 15.5 percent in May to S$8.15 billion when compared with a year earlier, the Trade Development Board (TDB) said on Monday. The rise was greater than most economists' forecasts.

A Reuters' poll of 11 economists on Friday forecast that May non-oil exports would rise 10.9 percent.

The rise in May compared with a year-on-year rise in April of 8.5 percent, indicated that the city-state's exports performance was being sustained, analysts said.

However, they noted that last year's exports were relatively weak. At that time, the Asian economic crisis was in full swing.

"The year-on-year comparison was exaggerated by a weak figure in 1998. Having said that, I think it highlights the improvement in the trade picture, both for Singapore and for the other economies in the region," said David Cohen, an economist with Standard & Poor's/MMS.

"They are being helped by a firming in the global electronics market, following the softness in the middle of 1998."

Economists said they expected Singapore's trade performance to continue strongly in June when compared with a year earlier.

They forecast June to show double-digit growth again, but not as high as May's 15.5 percent.

Electronics, the driving force behind the country's manufacturing sector, scored 12 percent growth in May to S$5.44 billion, reflecting strong performances in other Asian country's.

Disk drive exports, which were underpinning the pick-up in the electronics sector, rose 5.7 percent in May to S$1.47 billion.

Electronic exports comprise about 70 percent of Singapore's non-oil exports.

Singapore's total trade in May was S$30.5 billion, up 11.8 percent from May 1998 but down 2.2 percent from April's total trade of S$31.17 billion.

Singapore's May oil exports jumped 10.2 percent to S$1.19 billion from a year ago.

The Trade Development Board, which focuses on a three-month moving average, said Singapore's total trade improved 4.2 percent from the year-earlier three-month rolling average.

It said this was the first pick-up in trade after 12 months of contraction, which reflected better global demand for electronics and the bottoming out of crisis-ridden economies like Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

It noted that non-oil domestic exports to Japan improved a sharp 24.4 percent from a year earlier on a three-month rolling average basis, following the improvement in the Japanese economy.

Japan earlier on Monday reported that imports from Asia rose 7.7 percent in May from a year earlier and that its overall trade surplus plunged 31.5 percent.