Singapore: Non-oil domestic exports gain steam in December
Latest reading: Annual growth of non-oil domestic exports (NODX) shot up to 9.0% in December—beating market expectations—above November’s 3.4% as the country front-loaded shipments ahead of possible U.S. import tariffs. In seasonally adjusted month-on-month terms, NODX exports rose 1.7% in December, compared to November’s 14.7% increase.
The acceleration in annual growth of NODX was chiefly driven by rebounding shipments of non-electronics. Moreover, momentum in shipments of electronics continued expanding at a double-digit rate. Looking at key export markets, NODX to Japan, Thailand and the U.S. turned positive. That said, non-oil exports to China, the EU, Hong Kong and South Korea lost momentum.
Panelist insight: Commenting on the release, Jester Koh, economist at United Overseas Bank, stated:
“We argued that while Singapore may be less susceptible to direct US tariff risks, we will not be shielded from a negative shock to the global trade environment given our extensive reliance on trade as a small and open economy as reflected by the significantly higher share of domestic value added embodied in foreign final demand amongst the ASEAN-6 economies. […] For 2025, we project NODX growth at 1.5% (2024: 0.2%) factoring in a slowdown in exports momentum in 2H25 owing to the impact of tariffs and our forecast falls within the official projection range of +1.0% to +3.0%.”