Singapore"s January Exports Rise Less Than Estimated on Drugs

Singapore’s exports rose less than
estimated in January as manufacturers shipped fewer electronics
and pharmaceutical goods.

Non-oil domestic exports gained 0.5 percent from a year
earlier, after a 16.3 percent drop in December, the trade
promotion agency said in a statement today. The median of 11
estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 3 percent
increase.

“It’s still looking a little bit subdued” outside of
China, Euben Paracuelles, an economist at Nomura Holdings Inc.
in Singapore, said before the report. The U.S. economy is still
weak and Europe remains in a recession, he said.

Singapore’s export-dependent economy has been constrained
by faltering global demand as U.S. lawmakers wrangle over
tax and spending programs and Europe struggles with a debt
crisis. The government forecasts exports will rise 2 percent
to 4 percent in 2013, restrained by an uneven world recovery.

Data for overseas shipments and industrial production in
Singapore for January and February may be distorted by the
Chinese New Year holidays. Asian nations celebrated the Lunar
New Year in January in 2012 and observed it in February this
year, and factories from China to Vietnam typically shut and
reduce production during the holiday.

The Singapore dollar was little changed at S$1.2385 against
the U.S. currency as of 8:16 a.m. local time. It has dropped
about 1.4 percent this year.

Singapore’s electronics shipments by companies such as
Venture Corp. fell 5.6 percent in January from a year earlier,
after slipping 19.1 percent the previous month.

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and
pharmaceuticals, climbed 3.8 percent last month from the
previous year. Petrochemical exports increased 28.2 percent,
while pharmaceutical shipments fell 22.9 percent after sliding
11.5 percent in December.

Singapore’s non-oil exports dropped a seasonally adjusted
1.8 percent last month from December, when they fell a revised
4.2 percent, today’s report showed.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Sharon Chen in Singapore at
schen462@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Phang at
sphang@bloomberg.net

Enlarge image

Singapore’s January Exports Rise Less Than Estimated on Drugs

Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg

Containers are stacked at the Tanjong Pagar Container Terminal in Singapore. Singapore’s electronics shipments by companies such as Venture Corp. fell 5.6 percent in January from a year earlier, after slipping 19.1 percent the previous month.

Containers are stacked at the Tanjong Pagar Container Terminal in Singapore. Singapore’s electronics shipments by companies such as Venture Corp. fell 5.6 percent in January from a year earlier, after slipping 19.1 percent the previous month. Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg

Singapore"s January Exports Rise Less Than Estimated on Drugs