Singapore’s Exports Post Biggest Decline Since 2002

By Shamim Adam

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s exports fell the most since early 2002 in December as a deepening slump in global economies pared demand for electronics and pharmaceuticals.

Non-oil domestic exports dropped 20.8 percent from a year earlier, after contracting 17.5 percent in November, the trade promotion agency said in a statement today. Economists had expected a 17 percent decline. Overseas shipments fell 7.9 percent in 2008, the worst performance in seven years.

The city-state’s economy is in a recession, forcing manufacturers to fire workers and prompting the government to move forward its 2009 budget announcement to speed up its response to the crisis. Overseas shipments are also shrinking in China, Taiwan and South Korea.

“Exports are falling off a cliff across the region and intra-regional demand is also dropping,” said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Forecast Singapore Pte. “It’s quite terrible and there’s no way Singapore can escape the impact.”

Singapore expects overseas shipments to fall as much as 1 percent this year, while some economists are predicting exports will slide 9 percent, a central bank survey showed.

China’s exports fell the most in almost a decade in December, while Taiwan’s overseas shipments slumped by a record 41.9 percent in the same period.

Singapore’s exports fell a seasonally adjusted 13.1 percent last month from November, when they slid 2.8 percent, today’s report showed. Economists had expected a 5.8 percent decline.

Music Players

Electronics shipments slipped 25.4 percent in December from a year earlier, the 23rd consecutive drop, following a 17.3 percent decline in November. Sales of electronics products by companies including Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. were worth S$4.18 billion ($2.8 billion) last month.

Creative Technology Ltd., the Singaporean maker of accessories for Apple Inc.’s iPod, on Jan. 2 said it eliminated 2,700 jobs or almost half its workforce last fiscal year after demand for its own music players tumbled.

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, fell 17.4 percent in December from a year earlier. Pharmaceutical shipments plunged 51.1 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net