SINGAPORE: Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) performed better than expected in May, dipping 0.1% after shrinking a revised 9.6% in April.

This marks the fourth straight month of contraction, but it was still the mildest decline in 20 months, trade agency Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) said on June 18.

It also beat the 1% drop forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Electronic exports posted the first double-digit growth in 22 months. They grew 21.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) in May, extending the 3.3% increase in April.

The growth in electronic Nodx was driven by integrated circuits (ICs), also referred to as chips or semiconductors.

Year on year, ICs expanded by 35.8% to S$1.9bil.

ICs - which make up about half of electronics exports - are a vital component of various electronic devices.

Shipments of disk media products and personal computers (PCs) also contributed to the growth in electronic Nodx.

Exports of disk media products jumped 92% from a year ago to S$571.5mil, while PCs grew 27.2% to $286.9mil.

The pace of decline eased for non-electronics, which shrank 6% in May from the previous year.

This follows a 12.6% contraction in April.

The decline in non-electronic Nodx was driven by non-monetary gold, which contracted by 47.2% from a high base a year ago.

Pharmaceutical shipments fell by 37.5% while electrical circuit apparatus declined by 21.8%.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, which removes the effects of seasonal variations in the numbers, Nodx declined 0.1% in May, after a revised 7.3% increase in April.

In value terms, May Nodx came to S$13.9bil, similar to the previous month’s S$13.9bil but lower than the year-ago level of S$14bil and 2023’s average of S$14.5bil.

Year on year, total trade expanded 14.2% in May to S$108.3bil, following the 15.6% growth in April.

EnterpriseSG said in May that Singapore now expects growth in key exports to come in at the lower end of the range of 4% to 6% growth forecast in 2024.

This followed a disappointing start to the year, when Nodx fell 3.4% to around S$42bil in the first quarter of 2024.

 - ANN