Singapore’s export growth unexpectedly quickened in June as pharmaceutical shipments rebounded, countering a smaller increase in electronics sales.
Non-oil domestic exports climbed 6.8 percent from a year earlier, after a 3.2 percent gain in May, the trade promotion agency said in a statement today. The median of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 2 percent increase.
The improvement is threatened by a deepening global slowdown, with the International Monetary Fund yesterday lowering its forecast for global growth this year and next. Asian policy makers have cut interest rates or signaled they have scope to add monetary and fiscal stimulus to bolster their economies as Europe’s debt crisis curbs demand for goods.
“Given the current global economic situation, it remains to be seen whether this signals a more sustained improvement,” Vincent Conti, a Singapore-based analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said before the report. “To be confident in a trend shift, we need to see China’s growth begin to pick up and the U.S. recovery regain steam.”
Gross domestic product fell an annualized 1.1 percent in the three months through June from the previous quarter, when it climbed 9.4 percent, the Trade Ministry said July 13.
Singapore’s electronics shipments by companies such as Venture Corp. rose 1.6 percent in June from a year earlier, after climbing 3.9 percent the previous month.
Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, climbed 9.4 percent. Petrochemicals exports decreased 7.8 percent, while pharmaceutical shipments jumped 24 percent after rising 0.3 percent in May.
Singapore’s non-oil exports gained a seasonally adjusted 6.7 percent last month from May, when they slid a revised 2 percent, today’s report showed.
No comments:
Post a Comment