SINGAPORE'S EXPORTS CONTINUE TO PLUNGE IN JANUARY

SINGAPORE, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Singapore's non-oil domestic exports
continued its decline to plunge by 35 percent last month, following the 21
percent decrease in December 2008, pulled down by the lower electronic and
non-electronic exports.

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of
Trade and Industry spearheading the development of the republic's external
economic wing, said the largest contributors to the exports decline were the US,
China and Malaysia.

In its trade figures released here today, IE said Singapore's exports to the
other seven of its 10 top markets -- European Union, Indonesia, Hong Kong,
Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan -- also decreased in January.

The agency said Singapore's total trade declined by 36 per cent last month,
following the 19 per cent decrease in the previous month.

Total exports decreased by 38 per cent in January, following the 20 per cent
contraction in the previous month, while total imports declined by 33 per cent
in the same month, following the 17 per cent decrease in December.

IE said the decline in exports of electronic goods by 38 per cent in
January, following the 25 per cent decline in December, was largely due to lower
exports of parts of personal computers (PCs), disk drives and parts of
integrated circuits (ICs).

The decrease in non-electronic exports by 32 per cent in January, following
the 17 per cent decline in December, was led by reduced domestic exports of
petrochemicals, disk media products and primary chemicals, it said.

IE said non-oil domestic exports to Malaysia contracted by 40 per cent in
January, following the 26 per cent decrease in the previous month.

The decline in the exports was led by decreases in both electronic and
non-electronic exports which declined by 26 percent and 50 percent respectively
in January.

IE said the lower sales in electronic exports was mainly due to reduced
exports of parts of ICs (-72 per cent), parts of PCs (-30 per cent) and
capacitors (-70 per cent).

The contraction in non-electronic exports was mainly because of lower
exports of petrochemicals (-70 per cent), non-monetary gold (-66 per cent) and
electrical machinery (-66 per cent), it said.
-- BERNAMA