Singapore May exports up 11.6 pct from year ago, beat forecasts

SINGAPORE - Singapore's non-oil domestic exports rose 11.6 per cent in May from a year earlier, exceeding market expectations due to a rise in non-electronic product shipments such as non-monetary gold, data showed on Friday.

On a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in May jumped 16.8 per cent, the trade agency International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said in a statement.

The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for NODX to shrink 2.3 per cent from a year earlier and grow 2.6 per cent from the previous month.

Non-electronic NODX rose 19.0 per cent in May from a year earlier.

Exports of non-monetary gold surged 436.7 per cent from a year earlier, IE Singapore said.

Last month, Singapore slashed its exports forecasts for this year.

IE Singapore sees non-oil domestic exports contracting 3.0-5.0 per cent, compared with previous expectations of a 0.0-2.0 per cent expansion.