Singapore non-oil exports dive record 30pc

Singapore experienced a record 30 per cent contraction in non-oil exports last month, dashing economists' hopes the rate of deterioration would abate as the economy started to bottom out.

Non-oil domestic exports - a key indicator for the trade-reliant economy - slipped 29.9 per cent last month to S$7.5 billion (about HK$33.75 billion), the Trade Development Board said. It was the sixth consecutive monthly drop.

Among the welter of poor economic figures, the board noted that non-oil domestic exports to China had declined for the first time this year, on a three-month moving average basis, suggesting the regional slowdown was spreading.

Non-oil domestic exports to the mainland, Singapore's seventh most important market, fell 5.9 per cent to S$356 million.

Singapore slipped into recession in the first half of the year, undermined by the simultaneous deterioration of the global economy and the fall in the high-technology sector.

After a number of revisions, the government expected gross domestic product to grow between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent this year.