Non-oil domestic exports down 0.2% - worse than expected

Singapore

NON-OIL domestic export (NODX) performance in May appeared to be more in line with its growth trend in recent years, dipping 0.2 per cent.

Still, the year-on-year fall reported on Wednesday by trade promotion agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore was worse than expected. Private-sector economists were looking at a 2.3 per cent increase.

Last month's decline came after a 2.2 per cent rise in April and a 18.5 per cent surge in March.

But private-sector economists said those growth numbers had been propped up by exceptional strong shipments of non-regular items like structures of ships and boats and non-electric en…