Singapore’s June non-oil exports plunge 8.7%

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports were reported to have dropped 8.7% year-on-year in June, while marking the fifth straight month of decline.

The data followed a revised 0.7% contraction in May.

A consensus of analyst estimates had pointed to a much slower drop, by 1.2% YoY.

In June, shipments of electronic products shrank 9.5% YoY, following a 19.6% surge in May, dragged down by sales of telecommunication equipment (-50.5% YoY), disk media (-25.4% YoY) and integrated circuits (-8% YoY).

In the meantime, shipments of non-electronic products decreased at a faster pace in June, by 8.5% YoY, compared to a 6.1% slump in May. Those exports were pressured by lower sales of non-monetary gold (-51.1% YoY), food preparations (-16.3% YoY) and specialized machinery (-10.3% YoY).

Among trading partners, Singapore’s shipments decreased to Hong Kong (-41.9% YoY), the United States (-21.3% YoY), Taiwan (-20.2% YoY), South Korea (-19.1% YoY), China (-11.2% YoY) and to Japan (-7.6% YoY).

The Singaporean Dollar was 0.13% firmer on the day against its US counterpart, with the USD/SGD currency pair last trading at 1.3424.

Risk sentiment seems to be improving, according to Maybank analysts, as they cited a drop in US Treasury yields and Monday’s Wall Street rally.