SINGAPORE, March 16 (Xinhua) -- International Enterprise Singapore, a government agency that promotes international trade and partners Singapore companies to go global, announced on Friday the country's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) declined 5.9 percent year on year in February.
The decline broke a pattern of four straight months of growth. The authority attributes the month's decline to the decrease in both non-electronic and electronics exports.
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX declined by 2.6 percent in February to 14.7 billion Singapore dollars (about 11.17 billion U.S. dollars), following the revised 0.4 percent decline for the previous month, due to the decrease in non-electronic NODX which outweighed the growth in electronic NODX.
According to the agency, Singapore's electronic NODX dropped 12.3 percent year on year in February, after the 3.9 percent contraction in January. Non-electronic NODX decreased 3.4 percent year on year, after the 20.7 percent expansion in the previous month.
Among the top NODX markets of Singapore, Chinese mainland, the European Union 28 countries and China's Taiwan were major contributors to the NODX decline in February, according to the authority. The NODX to them fell 23.6 percent, 15.8 percent and 18.6 percent year on year, respectively.
Meanwhile, the non-oil re-exports (NORX) registered a flat performance, after the revised five percent year-on-year growth in January, due to the higher shipment of non-electronic re-exports which outweighed the decrease in electronics.
Singapore's oil domestic exports grew by 5.1 percent year on year in February, following the 15.4 percent expansion in the preceding month. Higher sales to Malaysia, the Marshall Islands and the European Union 28 countries contributed the most to the year-on-year increase. Singapore's oil domestic exports to the three markets increased 54 percent, 60.5 percent and 27.1 percent year on year, respectively. In volume terms, oil domestic exports decreased by 0.8 percent in February, compared to a revised 5.3 percent rise in January.
The total trade of Singapore grew 1.7 percent year on year in February. Total exports dropped by 1 percent in the month, and total imports increased by 4.8 percent.
