Virus outbreak derails Singapore exporters' hopes of recovery

ESG cuts 2020 NODX outlook to -0.5 to +1.5%, down a half-point from earlier projection

Annabeth Leow

Published Mon, Feb 17, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S manufacturers and exporters had seemed poised for recovery as global trade sentiments improved in late 2019, but are now facing prolonged agony in the near term.

Trade agency Enterprise Singapore (ESG) has cut the full-year non-oil domestic exports (NODX) outlook to a range from minus 0.5 per cent to plus 1.5 per cent, down a half-point from an earlier projection of zero to 2 per cent growth.

The gloomier prognosis comes as January's NODX figures slipped by a gentler-than-expected 3.3 per cent year on year, on a high base, in spite of the Chinese New Year break. That pushed seasonally adjusted, monthly growth in exports to 4.6 per cent, up from 1 per cent in December.

But last month's data hasn't taken stock of the drastic measures - such as citywide quarantines and business shutdowns - that China took in the later part of the month to slow the spread of the Covid-19 disease, which has killed more than 1,700 people there so far. As it is, the viral epidemic, which disrupted global supply chains as it made its way around the globe in recent weeks, is dealing yet another blow to a beleaguered electronics sector that had been waiting for a cyclical up…