Singapore's key exports fell for the 17th consecutive month in September as demand from crucial markets including the US and European Union continued to decline, data released Friday showed.
Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 7.2 percent in September from a year earlier to 12.81 billion Singapore dollars (9.24 billion US), trade promotion body International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said in a statement.
The decline was sharper than the average 6.0 percent fall forecasted by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
Total trade in September shrank 19.0 percent to 68.28 billion dollars from the same period a year ago.
IE Singapore said the decline in non-oil exports during September was due to weaker shipments of electronic and petrochemical products.
The monthly data showed non-oil exports to the city-state's key markets remained weak, with declines recorded for the US, European Union, China and Indonesia.
For the European Union, shipments fell 15 percent in September from a year ago and declined 4.7 percent to the US, IE Singapore said. Shipments to China tumbled 15 percent year-on-year.
The figures are seen as an indicator of the state of the economy given the country's heavy reliance on exports, especially to the United States and other developed markets, to drive growth.
Singapore's economy is slowly emerging from a recession that started in the second quarter of 2008. As the global financial crisis unfolded, demand for its exports to its major markets including the United States, Japan and the European Union evaporated.
However, preliminary figures released Monday by the government showed Singapore's gross domestic product grew by an estimated 0.8 percent in the third quarter to September.
The government also upgraded its 2009 forecast to a contraction of 2.0 to 2.5 percent, smaller than the previous estimate of negative 4.0 to 6.0 percent growth.
