China slowdown threatens Singapore trade as exports ease again in March

SINGAPORE'S non-oil domestic export (NODX) growth slowed for the fourth month in March, despite pulling ahead of private-sector economists' forecasts with a fillip from non-monetary gold shipments.

Besides energy costs and supply disruptions from war in Ukraine, analysts have also flagged mainland China's stringent zero tolerance stance on Covid-19 as a significant downside risk for exports.

"We see the lockdowns as a key downside risk to Singapore's exports in coming months. However, we remain optimistic about the overall export outlook, because of the still-robust global demand for key exports of electronics and pharmaceuticals which . . . are also less susceptible to the global growth slowdown," said Charnon Boonnuch, Asia economist at Nomura.