Singapore exports seen recovering in April, up 5.4% y-o-y: poll

[KUALA LUMPUR] Singapore's non-oil domestic exports were expected to recover in April after a two consecutive months of decline, a Reuters poll found on Monday.

Non-oil domestic exports were expected to have risen 5.4 per cent in April from a year earlier, according to the median forecast in the survey of 10 economists.

The upturn was seen likely to come from exports of the city-state's tech products.

"Tech demand is the main driver of Singapore's export performance," Moody's said in a research note to clients, warning of the "downside risk" from a US-China trade dispute affecting Singapore's export outlook.

"Singapore is at the whim of global demand," Moody's said.

Booming demand has benefited Singapore and other trade-dependent Asian economies in the past year, particularly makers of electronics products and components such as semiconductors, but growth has started to moderate this year.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, non-oil domestic exports were seen down 0.2 per cent from March, the poll found, which would be the third consecutive monthly decline.

In March Singapore's exports fell both year-on-year and month-on-month, by 2.7 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.

REUTERS