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Singapore's total trade up 22.6 percent, latest figures show |
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April 21, 2000
SINGAPORE, APR 20 (AP) - Singapore's trade with the rest of the world grew by 22.6 percent in March compared with the same month in 1999, showing that economic growth is firmly on track, the Trade Development Board said Thursday.
Total exports grew by 22.3 percent over the same period, a statement from the board said.
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports, considered a key economic indicator, rose by 17.1 percent. Singapore heavily relies on exporting goods manufactured here, and also re-exports goods imported from other countries.
Electronics exports - a mainstay of Singapore's economy - were up by 12.3 percent in March over a year earlier, while exports of non-electronic goods jumped 26.5 percent.
Leading the electronics segment, exports of integrated circuits soared 78.2 percent. Shipments of disk drives continued a long-term decline and fell 14.8 percent in March from a year earlier.
The figures confirm the success of Singapore's effort to move toward exports of higher value-added products, as disk drive makers move operations to lower-cost countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.
On a month-to-month basis, non-oil domestic exports came to 9.76 billion Singapore dollars (dlrs 5.7 billion) in March, compared to 7.8 billion Singapore dollars (dlrs 4.6 billion) in February. This represents an increase of 25.1 percent.
Compared with February, trade in March totaled 38.59 million Singapore dollars (dlrs 22.7 million), up from 31.76 million Singapore dollars (dlrs 18.7 million), a statement said. |