Exports down 5.8% to $323.6b in March

Exports to India, Thailand and Singapore posted double-digit declines.

The total exports of goods dipped faster at 5.8% YoY in March to $323.6b, from the 4.3% fall posted in February, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD). On a quarterly basis, exports dropped 9.7% YoY in Q1.

Exports to India (-17.2%), Thailand (-15.6%) and Singapore (-14.5%) countered the increases seen in the exports to China (+8.4%), Vietnam (+1.2%) and Taiwan (+0.9%). Overall, exports to Asia rose 3.2% YoY in March.

Apart from destinations in Asia, declines were recorded in exports to the UK (‑34.2%), Germany (-33.1%) and the USA (-29.3%).

As for commodities, a fall in exports was felt in non-metallic mineral manufactures (by $13.6b or -62.2%), telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (by $12.3b or -19.4%) and miscellaneous manufactured articles (by $3.7b or -20.8%). On the other hand, exports of ‘electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof’ edged up 8% YoY, whilst office machines and automatic data processing machines inched up 9.2% YoY.

Meanwhile, total imports of goods likewise slipped 11.1% YoY to $358.4b in March, following the 0.1% fall in February. Decreases were registered in imports from some major suppliers, particularly the US (-29.5%), Malaysia (-19.6%), the Mainland (-14.1%) and the Philippines (-10.3%). Increases were recorded in imports from Vietnam (+24%), Singapore (+9.8%) and Taiwan (+9.7%).

By commodities, imports of telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment, non-metallic mineral manufactures and ‘electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof’ fell, whilst power generating machinery and equipment edged up in March.

As a result, a trade deficit of $34.7b, equivalent to 9.7% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in March.