Economists expect tech upcycle to lift Singapore’s key exports in H2 after better-than-expected 0.1% slide in May

SINGAPORE’S non-oil domestic exports (NODX) beat analyst expectations to shrink 0.1 per cent year on year (yoy) in May, as electronics shipments continued to recover on the back of the global tech upswing.

May’s print moderated from the previous month’s revised 9.6 per cent contraction and marked the mildest decline in 20 months, data from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) showed on Tuesday (Jun 18). It was also better than the 1.1 per cent decline private-sector economists predicted in a Bloomberg poll.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, NODX declined 0.1 per cent in May, reversing from April’s revised 7.3 per cent expansion. While non-electronics decreased, electronics grew.